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Water is a precious thing in the desert. Without it no life is
possible. When rains come plants spring into vigorous growth. During
the long stretches without rain they rest, some as seed, while some
plants store water in root systems, or in large trunks. Animals have
developed a number of ways of surviving long dry spells in arid country.
Among mammals the kangaroo rat of our Southwestern desert seems able to
get along without water. This is caused by an arrangement within the
body whereby the necessary water is manufactured within the animal from
other foodstuffs: metabolic water.
The accessibility of drinking water in a desert may be the determining
factor in whether or not some birds can survive there. The nests of
Gambel's quail must be close enough to drinking water for the newly
hatched young to walk there, else they perish of thirst. It has
been said that newly hatched chicks of the related valley quail of
California cannot travel more than a few hundred yards from their
hatching places without water. Broods hatched farther away are doomed
to die.
Sand grouse, relatives of the pigeons that have adopted the general
appearance and habits of quail, live in the Old World, primarily in
arid or even desert areas. Where they occur their daily traveling to
water is a well-marked phenomenon. Their flight is swift and powerful,
and though they may traverse long distances of barren, inhospitable
country to watering places, their punctuality in arriving at water,
morning and evening in some species, is remarkable.
But what of the young of these desert dwellers that need water? A most
unusual situation exists; indeed it seems to be unique. The old birds
bring water to the young! This has long been recorded, but as recently
as 1921 it has been questioned. However, Mr. Meade-Waldo's observations
on birds in captivity seem to definitely establish the custom, and its
methods.
PARENTS CARRY WATER Both birds incubate the eggs, the male by night,
the female by day, and both parents care for the young. But it is the
male only that brings water to the young. He rubs his breast violently
up and down on the ground, and then, his feathers awry, he gets into
his drinking water and saturates the feathers of his under parts.
Then, in captivity, he would run to the hen, make a demonstration,
whereupon the young would run out from under her, get under him, and
suck the water from his feathers. This they did by passing the feathers
through their bills, continuing and changing about until the supply was
exhausted. It was found that until the young can fly they take water in
no other way.
This was in captivity. Presumably in the wild the process is the same,
the adult flying with wet under parts from the water hole to the
resting place where the young are under the care of the female.
The similarity of the young sucking water from the feathers to young
mammals suckling their mother has been pointed out. But another and a
truer similarity exists: that of the young sand grouse getting water
from the feathers, and young quail getting water from dew-wet leaves in
areas where dew is heavy and there is but little surface water.