Even the birds and squirrels were in distress, though their suffering was less painfully apparent than that of the poor cattle.

These were falling one by one in slow, sure starvation along the banks of the hot, sluggish streams, while thousands of buzzards correspondingly fat were sailing above them, or standing gorged on the ground beneath the trees, waiting with easy faith for fresh carcasses.

The quails, prudently considering the hard times, abandoned all thought of pairing.

They were too poor to marry, and so continued in flocks all through the year without attempting to rear young.

The ground-squirrels, though an exceptionally industrious and enterprising race, as every farmer knows, were hard pushed for a living; not a fresh leaf or seed was to be found save in the trees, whose bossy masses of dark green foliage presented a striking contrast to the ashen baldness of the ground beneath them.