The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1905-05-20
THE GOLDEN PLOVER
LONG FLIGHTS TAKEN YEARLY
BY REMARKABLE BIRD.
Winters in South America and Sum.
mers in the Regions of the Arc
tic Circle Where It Rears
It's Young.

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Just think of travelling 10000 miles q
year every year of ones life. 1t would
mean the equivalent of a trip from
San Francisco to New York, two voy-
ages across the Atlantic and back and
a run down to Florida afterwards. Even
with the assistance of express trains
and ocean liners, one who did this
amount of travelling year after year
would hardly be termed a "stay-at-
home" but if he had to do it with the
aid Of his own good muscles alone, he
would need no other business to give
him steady employment.
When we say that the golden plover
"winters" in Argentina, we mean that
1t there passes the months which con-
stitute our winter. AS a matter OF
fact, it is the summer of the southern
hemisphere, and when the plovers ar
rive there in September, they find the
native birds either nesting or prepar-
ing to nest. But this activity has no
effect upon the migrants from
the north, which have already reared
one family, and after a flight of 5000
miles are inclined to take things easy
for a time. Until March they are
chiefly occupied in providing them
selves with food, but in the early part
of that month they hear the call
which them once more on a
long and perilous journey. Giving up
their life of comparative ease, north
ward they start, through Bolivia,
western Brazil and Peru. Then.
whether they continue on through
Ecuador and cross the Gulf Of Pana-
ma. or whether they follow The 18th,
mus, no man is sure; all We know
about it is hat later in the month
they appear in Guatemala and Texas,
reaching the latter place by flying
straight across the Gulf of Mexico. In
April they are found crossing the pral
ries of the Mississippi valley and bel
fore the 1st of May they are going
over our northern borders into Can
ada. By the LIST Of June they have
reached their destination, the inhos-
pitable barren grounds abov5 the
arctic circle, or even hundreds OF
miles further north, where they take
up the duties which they came to per-
form. Though the lakes are still ice
bound, and the ground still frozen
hard, these plucky birds make their
simple nests in the moss, and lay their
four buffy eggs. In two months after
their arrival, they have reared their
families, and the homeward journey
is begun. But they do not go home by
the same route. First they pay a visit
to Labrador, where they may be found
at this season., in company with turn
stones and Eskimo curlews, feasting
on the crowberry, a juicy, black fruit
borne in profusion by a species of
heather, which grows e the rocks
and t~reeless slopes of this bleak coast.
The birds are very fond of this fruit,
and eat such quantities Of it that the
flesh of the curlews becomes stained
dark purple with the juice.
The ploYers now become very fat
and very strong, and are ready for
their great journey to the southwark.
They leave the land of Nova Scotia and
strike straight out to sea. They now
have 1900 miles of ocean between them
and the first of the Antilles, and 600
more to their objective point on the
mainland of South America.
Perhaps they stop occasionally on the
way, for these ploVers are good swim
mers, and are sometimes seen resting
ON the surface of the ocean. But prob
ably the voyage does not fatigue them
very much, since when they reach the
first land, and might alight as easily
as not, they prefer to continue their
fight, sometimes for hundreds of miles.
Well is it for them that they lay or
SO much fat before leaving Labrador,
for the voyage to the Antilles is a try.
ing one, and they arrive lean anc
hungry. Here, or upon the northeast
ern coast of South America, they make
a stop of three or four weeks, per-
haps, to recuperate. Then they sud-
denly disappear, whittier, no man
knows exactly, but later they reappear
at the same time in southern Brazil
and in the prairie region of Argentina,
almost to Patagonia, and their long
annual vacation begins once more.
How they find their way no one
knows; no one knows even why this
great journey is taken each year..
What we do know is that the golden
plover is one of the greatest travel
ers in the world.
ERNEST HAROLD BAYNES.
Queer Lot of Names.
Miss Death was brought to the Ger
man hospital in Philadelphia to be oper-
ated upon for appendicitis. She was q
daughter, she said, of an undertaken.
The name of the surgeon who was
chosen to perform the operation was
Dys-Dr. Frank Hackett Dye. When
the operation was over Miss Death was
placed in charge of two nurses. Miss
Payne is the day nurse. Miss Grone Is
the night nurse. The patient recovered