ABOUT BIRDS" DRINKING. 177 



ing but salt water to drink, and the other half they are unable 

 to get anj^thing but fresh water. Either they must drink both 

 or they live without drinking half the year. 



There is a pretty little story that shows their need of water. 

 Some years ago a gentleman had two little downy kittiwake 

 gulls which he intended to keep as pets. He gave them food 

 and water, but they would not drink, and in two days one was 

 dead and the other was not likely to live long. Everything 

 possible was done for him, and at last to please him a bucket 

 of salt water was dipped up to give him a bath end a swim. 

 To the surprise of every one he drank the salt water eagerly. 

 He was dying of thirst, but of thirst for salt water, never 

 having learned to drink anything else. He grew up to be a 

 beautiful bird and a great pet, but he never changed his habit 

 of drinking salt water. 



Yet this is not an invariable habit with sea-birds, for terns, 

 when nesting on low, sandy islands like Muskeget, have been 

 observed to drink from the pools of rain-water standing in 

 the hollows of the island. Therefore these birds can drink 

 both fresh and salt water, and often are unable to get any- 

 thing but salt water. Which is more reasonable to suppose, 

 that the petrels and albatrosses do not drink at all, or that, 

 like the terns, they drink salt water ? 



The hunters along the Maine coast have told me an inter- 

 esting fact. They especially prize the black mallard, or dusky 

 duck, often called the " black duck," though it is not black ; 

 yet they find him so wary that he is hard to approach. 

 Now the dusky duck is naturally an inland bird, and goes 

 to salt water only when his food supply is cut off by the 

 freezing of the ponds. But he has a craving for fresh water 

 to drink, which the hunters know and take advantage of. 

 In winter after a thaw with heavy rains, the brooks rise sud- 



