WHERE ANIMALS LIVE WITHOUT FRESH WATER.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVIII, Issue 12070, 25 October 1913, Page 3 (Supplement)

WHERE ANIMALS LIVE WITHOUT FRESH WATER.

ISLAND OF ZOOLOGICAL TOTAL • : ' ;; - •-■;■ ■•'-•'■ 'ABSTAINERS.

Recent, investigations - on -the little, known' andfrafely visited. Henderson or Ellzabetlr'lsland have led. to the discovery; of a complete and curious little colony,- of zoological total abstainers. which is uninhabited, is

situated about 120 miles north-east of ' Fitcflirn Island*—itself sufficiently out of the way, but famous as the home of the descendants of the mutineers .of cue Bounty." ; There is no ; water on it, not even a swamp, and it is .only six miles long, yet. it harbors quite a "nienaggrie —a kind of rat, a lizard, described as very abundant, and no fewer than four kinds of birds, all peculiar to the island, 'these are a fruit pigeon, a lorikeet, or honey-eating parrakeet, a little rail or crake, arid a ieed warbler. The strange tiling about the inmates of this curious little natural' aviary oi coral rock, surrounded'by waves instead of w.ires, is that two of its inmates are bird*' one especially associated with water--the rail arid the warbler. - • Yet it is evident.that, these, like -ilia rest, must do without drinking, unless the dew can slake their thirst, or they have acquired toleration . for sea water as a beverage. A similar case is that, of the peculiar and very handsome wild) goose of the Sandwich Islands, which frequents the barren lava flows, where there is no permanent water supply; but it feeds' on juicy food, such as sow thistle and berries." Here we get ap even more aquatic type of bird marooned on dry land, but the Sandwich Island goose' takes to water readily enough when kept in Europe. "x\s to the existence of aniriials without drinking, it it well known that many have che power of sustaining themselves in" this way, and the phenomenon occurs irrespective of their diet being vegetable or animal, at, any rate in some cases,": says the Standard in commenting upon Henderson Island life. "Rabbits as is well known can jive without water if given plenty of salad, arid so' can parrots if supplied : \vitli' sop';' yet both will drink on occac sions. So 'will, hawks and owls, but these birds can subsist for long periods without drinking' in captivity'; in fact, under the old management at the Zoo the owls never had any water given them. Neither did the curious hornbills, which are by nature chiefly fruit eaters, receive : any. They have the opportunity of drinking now but do it. so . awkwardly trying to peck up the water with'' their great bills that the habit liardlv seems natural. It has been recorded that a great bus-

lard lived for months in captivity without drinking, although the species does drink occasionally ; and it may be sug--gested that the' bustards are a family of birds accustomed to frequent dry places, and hence have acquired a power of abstinence. "But. setting aside the fact that the great bustard is often found near water, this explanation wdvdd not serve in the case of parrots and hornbills, which are as a rule forest birds; moreover, the family of birds most especially associated with desert conditions —the sand grouse—do not show any tendency to dispense with drinking. . Indeed they are very dependent on water, flying to their drinking places twice daily, and watering thoir chicks by soaking thenown under plumage;in the' 'fluid, which is afterward sucked off by the young. "The' camel itself, proverbial:for its' adaptation to the" desert and endurance of thirst, is equally in'need' of drinking, although on account.'of the water storage arrangements in its stomach it can do without a''fresh supply for days. Yet its endurance'6T thirst can be maintained onlv'about -twice-as long as thai ■of the horse' kept ''rinder similar conditions, and as.an abstainer it cannot compare with the'giraffe,'the eland and some of the other antelopes, which can subsist without drinking for months at a time and probably indefinitely. "Abilitv to exist without drinking is evidently a physiological peculiarity of certain species of families of' animals, and it is obvious from what has been said above that this - power 'is-/capri-ciously distributed and has no necessary connection with the creature's environment, though, under the pressure of circumstances it may become invaluable." ■"