16 
SHORE BIRDS . 
berries of the coast, and they set out upon the journey to 
Baffin’s Bay, Smith’s Sound, or Labrador, where they again 
regale themselves in the fresh bracing air of that isolated re¬ 
gion. There are hundreds of miles, up and down the coast 
of Labrador, of low plain lands, which produce great quan¬ 
tities of berry-bearing shrubs. Some of these berries are not 
unlike our blue berries, only larger. They are called by the 
natives “ gallou berries,” and the birds that feed on them 
“ gallou birds,” probably a corruption of curlew. The ber¬ 
ries are also called “rotten apples.” Upon these berries the 
Esquimaux curlew and dough-birds feed. Dr. Coues, in his 
observations in Labrador, in 1860, says of these birds: 
“Their food consists almost entirely of the cowberry (. Em - 
jpetrum nigrum ), which grows on the hillsides in astonishing 
profusion. It is also called the ‘ bear berry * and ‘ curlew 
berry.’ It is a small berry of a deep purple color, almost 
black, growing upon a procumbent-running kind of heath, 
the foliage of which has a peculiar moss-like appearance. 
This is their principal and favorite food, and the whole intes¬ 
tines, the vent, the legs, the bill, throat, and even the plum¬ 
age, are more or less stained with the deep purple juice. 
They are also very fond of a species of small snail that ad¬ 
heres to the rocks in immense quantities, to procure which 
they fequent the land-washes at low tide.” The birds as far 
south as Cape Cod, when shot, still have the anal and tibial 
feathers discolored by the excrements. We are informed by 
shipmasters and fishermen, who have often visited the coast 
of Labrador, that the birds come stringing along down over 
the mountains and hills on to the plains in myriads to feed 
on these berries. There are no towns away up on the coast, 
but a few scattered Esquimaux huts, where the hardy fisher¬ 
men go ashore to cure their fish, and it is during these visits 
that the observations are made. The old birds, after resting 
awhile, move on to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Magdalen 
Islands, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and thence south, 
ward, to give place to the young that must soon follow. Mr. 
Cory reports “young dough-birds are due here, Magdalen 
