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water is exceedingly scarce. All the watercourses are dry ; and

one may travel for miles without seeing a drop. And so the bird

has got out of, or never developed, the habit of drinking, and

obtains the moisture necessary for its body from fruits. My

present lazy overfed Rollers are not fair samples,but my old bird

ate grapes with avidity ; lyord Lilford has shewn us that one

specimen he examined (and the whole number he examined

could have been but as a drop in the ocean) had some remains of

figs in its stomach ; and all but the more modern writers give

berries as part of the food of the Roller.


Some one will say here : — If this be so with the Roller,

how about other birds ! Why should the Roller be the only

abstainer ? Not a writer hints at any other bird not drinking.

True ; I know not of so much as one ; but I fear we must not

attach too much importance to their silence. Some time ago,

I chanced to meet one of our great cabinet -naturalists, and

remarked on the non-drinking of the Hoopoe. To my surprise he

immediately rejoined that the "desert-loving" birds did not drink.

If this is a well-known facft, it is certainly remarkable that it should

not ever, so far as I know, have been referred to in literature on

birds. I sometimes think that the speaker made the remark in

order to give me to understand that there was not anything

tinder the sun, or anywhere else, which I could possibly know

that he was not fully acquainted with, (a) On the other hand, I

remember noticing a case in which, in answer to an anxious

enquirer, a well-known writer told the owner of a sick Hoopoe to

put certain medicine in its drinking water. He clearly did not

know that the Hoopoe, as a rule, does not drink. I have had

twelve Hoopoes in my time, some living for long periods, but

only two out of the twelve were ever seen to drink. These two

were not seen to drink until I had had them about eight months,

when the one became very fond of water, the other drinking

only rarely, I think. The Hoopoe, if I mistake not, is supposed

to be wholely insectivorous ; my birds were not so. In addition

to milk sop, I have it recorded that they partook of rice pudding,

stewed pear, and boiled cabbage ; that they were very fond of

tomatoes and stewed onion ; that they had been seen eating young

shoots of Virginia creeper ; and that they were very fond of

cherries (uncooked) and red currants. They also tried grapes,


(a) Mr. Phillipps does not, of course, overlook the fact that some of our best cabinet-

naturalists are also not only excellent field-naturalists but even ardent aviculturists. —

A. G. B.


True, and they also write ; but not one has yet got so far as to say, with Morris,

•" They are said never to drink."— R. P.



