CHAPTER XIII 



THIRSTY BIRDS 



AT the end of a recent summer drought, after weeks 

 of burning sunshine and dusty haze, the atmosphere 

 underwent such a change, prophetic of rain, that the 

 windows of Windsor Castle could be counted from the 

 Great Western line near Slough. Then the thirsty 

 birds also began to show signs that rain was at hand. 

 They twittered and sang while the clouds gathered, 

 and when after a night of continuous downpour the 

 tempest ceased, they crowded to the pools and puddles, 

 or to the lakelets left in the depressions of lead roofs, 

 and there drank and bathed and splashed the water 

 over their heads and backs as if they never could have 

 enough of it. It is a sad " come-down " for a respect- 

 able family blackbird which has lived in the same 

 garden for years to have to wash in the overflow of 

 the garden hose, as he had been doing lately, while 

 in places where no such appliances are found the 

 birds had been suffering from a water famine of a very 

 serious kind. 



Possibly because their powers of flight enable even 

 desert species to drink at least once daily, most birds 

 do not seem to have acquired the power of going with- 

 out water which several mammals possess. They gener- 



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