96 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



and being clever and inquisitive birds, are highly in- 

 genious at finding out where water is kept. Unfortu- 

 nately, they are not equally thoughtful as to the means 

 of reaching it, and both tame jackdaws and wild ones 

 are constantly "found drowned" in sheep-tanks and 

 garden water-carriers into which they have fallen in 

 endeavouring to drink. 



On the downs, whither most of the rooks from the 

 lower ground move at the close of summer, they may 

 be seen, together with the starlings, sitting in long 

 lines in the evening, waiting to drink up what the 

 sheep leave in the troughs. The scene at such times 

 is often quite amusing. The shepherds are at the 

 draw-well, three hundred feet deep, winding up the 

 buckets. The sheep crowd densely round them in 

 a solid mass, often jumping over each other's backs, 

 or on to the packed flock, in the hope of wedging 

 into a place. The starlings, eager to drink too, fly 

 on to the sheep's backs and heads, and peer over into 

 the troughs, while the rooks, equally thirsty but less 

 bold, wait their turn for the " leavings " till the flock 

 is driven off to be folded for the night. 



For the ground birds, especially the young ones 

 unable to fly, or only capable of moving by means of 

 their wings for short distances, long droughts are a 

 very serious matter. On many parts of the downs 

 most of the ponds dry up, and all that the little par- 

 tridges find to drink are the drops of dew in the 

 morning. The result is a great mortality, which also 

 occurs on waterless parts of moors among the young 

 grouse. On many partridge manors tin troughs or 



