148 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
traverse it are but a fraction of the thousands of North 
American birds that spend the winter holiday in South 
America. 
* * * * * * * 
‘‘Have you patience to follow the history of the flight 
of one bird? The longest migration route is taken by 
some of the wading-birds, especially the American Golden 
Plover, the Eskimo Curlew, and the Turnstone. The 
journey of the Plover, in itself like a fable, is wonderful 
enough to be told in detail. 
“In the first week of June, they arrive at their breed- 
ing-grounds in the bleak, wind-swept ‘barren grounds’ 
above the Arctic Circle, far beyond the tree line. Some 
even venture 1000 miles farther north (Greely found 
them at latitude 81 degrees). While the lakes are still 
ice-bound, they hurriedly fashion shabby little nests 
in the moss only a few inches above the frozen ground. 
By August, they have hastened to Labrador, where, in 
company with Curlews and Turnstones, they enjoy a 
feast. Growing over the rocks and treeless slopes of 
this inhospitable coast is a kind of heather, the crow- 
berry, bearing in profusion a juicy black fruit. The 
extravagant fondness shown for the berry by the birds, 
among which the Curlew, owing to its greater numbers, 
is most conspicuous, causes it to be known to the natives 
as the ‘curlewberry.’ The whole body of the Curlew 
becomes so saturated with the dark-purple juice that 
birds whose flesh was still stained with the colour have 
been shot 1000 miles south of Labrador. 
‘“‘ After a few weeks of such feasting, the Plovers be- 
