162 Twelve Months With 



Like the woodchuck that lives upon its own fat in 

 winter, water and shore birds, making long over- 

 sea trips, live largely upon the fat with which their 

 bodies are stored in the rich feeding grounds of 

 the north. The American golden plover travels 

 slowly across the continent from Alaska to Labra- 

 dor, feeding all the way, and by the time it is ready 

 for its 2500 mile journey over sea to the south, it 

 is stocked with fuel fat, sufficient for its long jour- 

 ney. 



A friend who has hunted the Pacific golden 

 plover in the Hawaiian Islands in the late fall, 

 tells me that when they arrive there they are poor 

 and thin, but that within a few days after their 

 arrival they have regained their normal amount of 

 fat. The American golden plover is sometimes 

 seen in Illinois and Indiana in the fall, but its 

 course of travel at this season is eastward and not 

 south, for they migrate southward only from the 

 northeastern coast of the United States. 



There are various methods employed by the dif- 

 ferent birds in travelling to their winter homes in 

 the south. Some travel very rapidly, and cover 

 immense distances in a very short period of time. 

 Others travel slowly, and interrupt their trip with 

 more or less frequent stops of a day or sometimes 

 several days for feeding. Some travel singly, or 

 in pairs, some in company with birds of other 

 species, and still others travel in large flocks all of 

 the same species. 



