37^ BIRDS COLLECTING DEW-DROPS. 



Captain Sturt, the explorer, probably saved his life 

 by collecting the dew drops from the bush by means 

 of a sponge. 



It is in this way, we cannot doubt, that many birds 

 obtain their supplies of water. A remarkable instance 

 of how they sometimes manage to collect sufficient 

 water to assuage their thirst is mentioned in Forrester's 

 " American Field Sports, " in the case of a caged prairie 

 hen. It was remarked that she avoided the cup of 

 water placed for her in the cage. " Happening, how- 

 ever, one day to drop some water on the cage, it 

 trickled down in drops along the bars, which the bird 

 no sooner observed than she eagerly picked them off 

 drop by drop, with a dexterity that showed she had 

 been habituated to this mode of quenching her thirst, 

 and probably it could be done in this way only in 

 dry and barren tracts, where, except in the form 

 of drops of dew and rain, water is very rarely met 

 with." * 



This incident shows very clearly how the thing is 

 done, and describes in brief the manner in which it seems 

 certain that many birds inhabiting dry regions supply 

 their wants. Where strong frosts however supervene 

 all waters are sealed up, and everything becomes like 

 iron : nothing therefore remains for it in the case of birds 

 which pick up their food bit by bit, mostly in a soft state, 

 but migration. Many birds of the duck tribe for instance 

 require to take their food either in water or else 

 in a very moist state ; such birds are best fed while 

 young, if being reared by hand, by placing their food 

 in shallow pans, covered with water, thus most nearly 

 approaching their natural habits. If it is given to them 



* Frank Forrester's American Field Sports, 1852, Vol. L, p. 61. 



