878 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



ONE OF THE SMALLER PLOVER 



The semipalmated or ring-necked plover is a miniature edition of the 

 Killdeer, but it has only a single band across its breast. 



flight to Brazil and Peru. Both species are similar in 

 habits, frequenting shores and mud flats or even plough- 

 ed fields or pastures. They fly in close flocks and appear 

 not unlike small ducks at 

 a distance. Upon alighting 

 they scatter to feed, run- 

 ning along the beach in 

 search of stranded aquatic 

 insects and crustaceans 

 which they pick up with a 

 vigorous tilt of the body as 

 though they were about to 

 dive. 



Both the golden and 

 black-bellied plovers are 

 still numbered among the 

 game birds and are hunted 

 either by means of decoys 

 or by stalking them along 

 the shore. They have rich 

 mellow whistles which are 

 quite easily imitated and 

 they may often be drawn 

 down to the decoys from a 

 great height by the hunters. 



There are about seventy- 



THE HOME OF THE KILLDEER 



Creek bottoms, pastures and cultivated lands are the nesting place of this 

 bird. The black bands across the breast and the white neck ring break 

 up its contour and make the bird in this photograph difficult to see. 



before the other shore-birds take wing, it pitches oflF on 

 a swift, erratic flight to some distant part of the shore. 

 Its wings are long and pointed and the speed which it 

 develops when once under way is as remarkable as the 

 irregular course which it often pursues. 



Upon its nesting grounds, and it nests from the Gulf 

 States to British Columbia, it is even noiser than on the 

 chores, though in the defense of its nest it often loses 

 much of its timidity. Indeed when its nest is approached, 

 It will usually trail its wings on the ground and go limp- 

 ing oft' within a few feet of the intruder in an endeavor 

 to lead him away. The easiest method of finding a 

 killdeer's nest is always to walk in the opposite direction 

 from that in which the bird tries to lead one, noting 

 when it seems to show the greatest distress. 



Were it not for the behavior of the killdeer, the nest 

 would be extremely difficult to find for it consists of a 

 mere depression in the gravel or in the soil of the 

 garden wherein are laid four very protectively colored 

 eggs. They are large for the size of the bird, light 

 brownish or drab in ground color, with heavy black 

 markings, and pointed at one end so that they will fit 



together and be more easily 

 covered by the incubating 

 bird. 



The young killdeers when 

 first hatched are covered 

 with grayish brown down 

 and are even more protec- 

 tively colored than the eggs 

 so that when they crouch 

 in the nest, they are almost 

 impossible to see. The ac- 

 companying photograph of 

 a nest containing three 

 young and one egg will illus- 

 trates this point. They are 

 active little creatures and 

 can run about and even 

 swim, shortly after hatch- 

 ing. At the slightest alarm, 

 h o w ever, a note from 

 their 



parents 

 tell them 

 five species of plovers in the world of which only eight, to crouch and they remain immovable 



including the two mentioned, are found in North Ameri 

 ca. Of these, by all means the most common and best 

 known is the killdeer, so called from its notes — "kill-dee, 

 kill-dee, kill-dec" — which constantly fill the air wherever 

 these birds occur. They seem to have- petulant disposi- 

 tions and find expression for their feelings through con- 

 stant noise so that the slightest disturbance of alarm 

 starts them off. The majority of shore-birds are con- 

 fiding creatures and unless constantly shot at, will allow 

 even the hunters to approach closely. Not so with the 

 killdeer ; it seems to have a special aversion for man and 

 espys one approaching at a great distance and starts 

 "kill-deeing" so as to alarm the whole flock, and long 



until the old birds tell them that 

 danger is past and that they can 

 once more run about. 



As soon as the young are able to 

 fly, various families gather into flocks 



"^ 



SEEMS LARGER THAN IT REALLY IS 



Because of its long wings, the killdeer appears much larger, when on the 

 wing, than it really is. 



