Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1913-10-08
CAN EXIST WITHOUT WATER.
Physiological Popularity Of Animals
That Are Total Abstainers.

Recent Investigations on the little
known and rarely visited Henderson
or Elizabeth Island have led to the
discovery of a complete and curious
| little colony of geological total alb
| stainers. The island, which is unin-
habited, is situated about 120 miles
| northeast of Pitcairn Island-itself
sufficiently out of the way, but IA
nous as the home of the descendants
of the mutineers of the Bounty.
There is no water on it, not even a
swamp, and ii is only six miles long,
yet it harbors quite a menagerie-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
lorikect or honey eating parrakett, a
little rail or crake and reed
warbler. The strange thing about the
inmates of this curious little natural
aviary of coral rock, surrounded by
waves instead of wires, is that two of
its inmates are birds, one especially
associated with water-the rail and
the warbler.
Yet it is evident that htese, like the
rest, must do without drinking unless
the dew can Stake their thirst. or they
have acquired federation 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,
Sucb "a sow thistle and berrias Hero
we get an even more aquatic type of
bird marooned on dry land, but the
Sandwich Island goose takes to water
readily enough when kept in Europe.
AS to the existence of animals
without drinking. it is well known
that many have the power of sustain
ing 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 Hen
derson Island life. Rabbits, as is
we'll known, can live without water if
given plenty of salad and so can par
rots if supplied with sop; yet both
will drink on occasions. So will
ha wks and owls, but these birds can
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 eat
ers, receive any. They have the OPP
portunity of drinking now, but do it
so awkwardly trying to peck up the
water with their great bills that the
habit hardly seems natural.
1T has been recorded that a great
bustard lived for months in captivity
without drinking. although the species
does drink occasionally, and it may
be suggested tina the bustards are Il
family of birds accustomed to fire.
quent dry places, and hence have ac-
CURED the power Of abstinence.
But, setting aside the fact that TIE
great bustard is often found near
water, this explanation would not
serve in the case of parrots and horn
bills, which are, as rule, forest birds.
the family of birds most
associated with desert con-
sand grouse-do not show
any tendency to dispense with drink
ing. Indeed, they are very dependent
on water, flying to their drinking
places twice daily, and watering their
chicks by soaking their own under
plumage in the fluid, which is after
ward sucked off by the young.
The camel itself. proverbial for It's
to the desert and endur-
ance of thirst, is equally in need of
although on account of the
water storage arrangements in III
stomach it can do without a fresh
supply for days. Yet it's endurance
of thirst can be maintained only
about twice as long as that of the
horse kept under similar conditions,
and as an abstainer it cannot compare
with the giraffe, the Gland and some
of the other antelopes, which can ex-
list without drinking for months at
time, and probably indefinitely.
Ability to exist without drinking is
evidently a physiological popularity
of certain species of families of ami
mails, and it is obvious, from what has
been said above that this power is
distributed and has no
connection with the cre1-
lures environment, though under the
pressure of circumstances it may be-
come luable.-Providence Journal.