<h2><SPAN name="WATER_AND_ANIMALS" id="WATER_AND_ANIMALS"></SPAN>WATER AND ANIMALS.</h2>
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<p class="drop-cap">TO SHOW the importance of
water to animal life, we give
the opinions of several
travelers and scientific men
who have studied the question
thoroughly.</p>
<p>The Camel, with his pouch for storing
water, can go longer without
drink than other animals. He doesn't
do it from choice, any more than you
in a desert would prefer to drink the
water that you have carried with you,
if you might choose between that and
fresh spring water. Major A. G.
Leonard, an English transport officer,
claims that Camels "should be watered
every day, that they can not be trained
to do without water, and that, though
they can retain one and a half gallons
of water in the cells of the stomach,
four or five days' abstinence is as much
as they can stand, in heat and with
dry food, without permanent injury."</p>
<p>Another distinguished English
traveler, a Mr. Bryden, has observed
that the beasts and birds of the
deserts must have private stores of
water of which we know nothing. Mr.
Bryden, however, has seen the Sand-Grouse
of South America on their
flight to drink at a desert pool. "The
watering process is gone through with
perfect order and without overcrowding"—a
hint to young people who are
hungry and thirsty at their meals.
"From eight o'clock to close on ten
this wonderful flight continued; as
birds drank and departed, others were
constantly arriving to take their
places. I should judge that the average
time spent by each bird at and around
the water was half an hour."</p>
<p>To show the wonderful instinct
which animals possess for discovering
water an anecdote is told by a writer
in the <i>Spectator</i>, and the article is republished
in the <i>Living Age</i> of
February 5. The question of a supply
of good water for the Hague was under
discussion in Holland at the time of
building the North Sea Canal. Some
one insisted that the Hares, Rabbits,
and Partridges knew of a supply in the
sand hills, because they never came to
the wet "polders" to drink. At first
the idea excited laughter. Then one
of the local engineers suggested that the
sand hills should be carefully explored,
and now a long reservoir in the very
center of those hills fills with water
naturally and supplies the entire town.</p>
<p>All this goes to prove to our mind
that if Seals do not apparently drink,
if Cormorants and Penguins, Giraffes,
Snakes, and Reptiles seem to care
nothing for water, some of them do
eat wet or moist food, while the
Giraffe, for one, enjoys the juices of
the leaves of trees that have their
roots in the moisture. None of these
animals are our common, everyday
pets. If they were, it would cost us
nothing to put water at their disposal,
but that they never drink in their
native haunts "can not be proved until
the deserts have been explored and
the total absence of water confirmed."—<i>Ex.</i></p>
<hr class="chap" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</SPAN></span></p>
<table class="sp2 mc w50" title="AMERICAN HERRING GULL." summary="AMERICAN HERRING GULL.">
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<td colspan="3"><span class="ac w100 figcenter">
<SPAN name="i_010.jpg" id="i_010.jpg"> <ANTIMG style="width:100%"
src="images/i_010.jpg" width="600" height="456" alt="" /></SPAN></span>
</td>
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<td class="xx-smaller ac w30">From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences.</td>
<td class="x-smaller ac w40">AMERICAN HERRING GULL.<br/>
⅙ Life-size.<br />
CHICAGO COLORTYPE CO., CHIC. & NEW YORK</td>
<td class="xx-smaller ac w30">Copyright by<br/>
Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</SPAN></span></p>
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