Oct.-Dec. 1921.] 



The Canadian Field-Naturalist 



143 



young he would be promptly ejected or 

 left to starve. It seems that the mater- 

 nal and paternal love of birds is the 

 strongest at this period, which might 

 account for their taking more readily to 

 the young of others. While tihe fostering 

 of the above-mentioned species was in 

 the main brougjrit about through human 

 agency and not on their own volition, 

 yet it has been my good fortune to ob- 

 serve a few eases of strictly voluntary 

 adoption. 



One of the most interesting cases of 

 this kind was that of a pair of Killdeer 

 Plover. In the spring of 1919 a young 

 man brought to my shop a pair of these 

 birds to ihave mounted with their young 

 ones which he had caught after shooting 

 tjieir parents. As these birds had been 

 shot at close range while protecting their 

 young, they were too much cut up for 

 mounting, so I prevailed on the young 

 man to give me the young orphans to 

 release, which he did. It seemed to me 

 that perhaps I could get them adopted 

 by a pair of Killdeers which I knew A^d 

 young, and occupied a field about half 

 a mile distant. With this end in view, I 

 forthwith picked up the box of little 

 orphans and made a bee-line for that 

 field, but after criss-crossing the field 

 several times, I failed to locate them and 

 was becoming discouraged. I then walked 

 to the centre of the field, sat on a stone 

 and took the perforated cover off the 

 box. They stretched up t^eir little necks 

 and gave utterance in unison to a very 

 low plaintive cry or pipe. Almost imme- 

 diately, like a bolt from the clear sky, 

 the female Killdeer flew towards me and 

 settled about 25 yards distant. She had 

 heard their piping cry and came to res- 

 cue. She appeared to be in great distress 

 and anxiety. When the little ones heard 

 her voice they also became agitated and 

 raised their little voices, which brought 

 the motjrier bird almost to my feet utter- 

 ing most bewailing lamentations. Then 

 I took one of the little orphans from the 

 box and set it on my hand. The scene 

 which followed was very pathetic. She 

 seemed to go into paroxysms of grief, and 

 with most lamentable cries and Avings 

 ^ and tail outspread, quite fearless of me, 

 i\she ran around me at a distance of not 



more than 15 or 20 feet. She would drag 

 herself on her breast as though botja her 

 legs were broken, then roll over on her 

 back struggling as though she was tied 

 down ; hop along on one leg with wings 

 drooping; turn summersaults and put her- 

 self into all manner of shapes. Obviously 

 these manoeuvres were to entice me to 

 chase her and get me away from the 

 young ones. 



Not caring to keep her in further sus- 

 pense I set t^e little fellow down, and 

 he ran over to her as fast as his little 

 legs could carry him. She advanced a 

 little to meet him throwing one wing 

 over him, and uttering a most affection- 

 ate purring or crooning sound of joy and 

 satisfaction, something akin to that of a 

 mother cat when you take her kitten 

 from her to fondle. I now released the 

 other three and they likewise made direct 

 for this foster mother, and she slowly 

 led them away until I lost sight of them 

 in the grass. Had they been her own, 

 and she must have known they were not, 

 she could not have shown more maternal 

 love and affection. The male bird the 

 while kept up his plaintive pee-we-we-we- 

 we-we-we-we, but did not come so close, 

 and I feel certain kept his eye on their 

 own litle flock. I am satisfied that 

 these foster parents raised these little 

 orphans, as, passing through the field 

 again in August T counted nine on tihe 

 wing, and I am absolutely certain that 

 these were the only pair of Killdeer that 

 nest^ed in that field or vicinity that year. 



Oliver TRiVFFORD, 



St. Eugene, Ont. 



^ 



AYhite-Rt-mped Sandpiper at Ottawa. 

 Two white-rumped sandpipers (Pifto- 

 l)ia fuscicollis) were noted at Shirley's 

 Bay. near Ottawa, on October 8. 

 1921. They were in company with 

 some black-bellied plovers and solitan' 

 and other sandpipers, and the difference 

 between the white-rumped species and the 

 others was quite plain as a result of the 

 conspicuous white upper tail coverts. A 

 specimen was collected 'to make identifi- 

 cation certain. The only available au- 

 thority stated that this bird has only been 

 noted on three occasions in this locality. 



Philip F. Foran. 



