23 AUGUST 1935, Page 15

COUNTRY LIFE

Drought Influences

The effects of such a drought as we have experienced in the life of the country have often been indirect. While Plants may suffer directly from lack of moisture,- animals for the most part suffer more from hunger than thirst. In the worst Australian droughts, to which there is of course 'no parallel in Britain, the animals die more from lack of food than lack of drink. So today in England. When game-preservers see the coveys of partridges decreasing in .size from day to day, the cause is usually the lack of insect food, whiCh is necessary for all young birds. Reversing the human development, they begin life as carnivores, though they May end as vegetarians. Even that inveterate grain- 'eater, the sparrow, • which migrates in hordes from towns to the harvest fields and takes heavy toll of the farmer— even the sparrow in its infant days needs animal food ; and at is this fact that makes almost every bird that flies useful to man.