100 BIRD BEHAVIOUR 



about water; either they do not drink at all, or 

 only do so when water is easily to be had, not 

 making a special search for it, and being able to do 

 without it in captivity. There are the same 

 differences among mammals, but it is curious that 

 in this class the total abstainers are all herbivores, 

 the carnivora drinking readily and regularly, while 

 among birds it is most particularly the animal- 

 feeding kinds which can dispense with the fluid, 

 though some of the vegetable feeders can do so as 

 well. Owls and Hawks, for instance, can live with- 

 out drinking, though both do drink ; in India it 

 was a common sight to see Kites drinking at a 

 pond. 



Kingfishers seem never to drink, either the 

 fishing or the land-hunting kinds, though I did once 

 see a Laughing Jackass in the Calcutta Zoo make a 

 sort of awkward attempt to do so. The aquatic- 

 feeding kinds, like other fish-eating birds, no doubt 

 swallow a good deal of water incidentally. This 

 must, one would think, especially apply to those 

 few favoured birds which have learnt the trick of 

 swallowing under water, so familiar in the case of 

 the Penguins in the diving- tank in the Zoo. Gener- 

 ally, however, a diving fisher comes up with its 

 fish, but among the Cormorants one of the African 

 species {Phalacrocorax cafensis) can swallow under 

 water, as also can the Shag {P. graculus). 



It is a curious thing that Humming-birds, Sun- 

 birds, and Honey-eaters should drink water so 

 freely, living on liquid food so largely as they do ; 



