CHARADEIID^ — THE PLOVERS — OXYECHUS. 149 



country than in others, and as a general thing is more numerous in the interior than 

 near the sea-coast. A hirge proportion are migratory in the \vinter to the West 

 Indies and Northern Soutli America. 



Throughout New Enghmd it is found generally distributed, but nowhere common, 

 or only so in very exceptional instances. A few are seen as far eastward as Calais, 

 but only in the fall, and these are evidently accidental visitors. A single specimen 

 is recorded as taken in England. In the interior it is found much farther north than 

 near the coast. Richardson notes its common presence in the Valley of the Saskatch- 

 eAvan, where it arrives about the 20th of April, and where, during its residence, it 

 frequents the gardens and cultivated fields of the trading-posts in quest of its food. 

 It is very familiar, hovering over the heads of intruders, and reiterating its loud, 

 shrill cry. Captain Blakiston noted its first arrival at Fort Carlton, in 1858, 

 on the 19th of April, finding it a bird diflicult to approach within shooting dis- 

 tance. M. Bourgeau also obtained specimens, as well as their nests and eggs, on the 

 Saskatchewan. 



In Northeastern Illinois, near Lake Michigan, Mr. Nelson regards this species 

 as only a summer resident, arriving the 1st of March and departing in October, 

 although stragglers often appear in the milder days of mid-winter. 



In Southeastern Oregon Captain Bendire found it one of the earliest birds to arrive 

 in spring, and generally distributed in summer. 



On Long Island, according to Mr. J. H. Batty, the Kildeer remains until quite 

 late in the fall, and is seen again very early in the spring. He does not think, hoAV- 

 ever, that it stays there throughout the winter, although one was procured by him 

 on the 27th of November, 1872, when the ground was frozen hard and all the ponds 

 were covered with ice : its stomach contained common ground-worms. 



The Kildeer breeds as far south at least as Mexico. Dr. Berlandier states that 

 it lives in the neighborhood of Matamoras, in the vicinity of swamps, and that it 

 is also found throughout the entire State of Tamaulipas, where it is known as the 

 Tildeo, 



Dr. Lincecum states that, in the neighborhood of Long Point, Texas, it remains 

 during winter in large flocks, flies, and feeds, and sounds its peculiar note as much 

 at night, seemingly, as in the day. It occasionally nests about the rocky streamlets 

 on the prairies of that country. He never met with a nest, though he has once 

 been very near to one, the old bird trying by various pretences to allure him away 

 from a certain locality by the side of a rocky stream. It carries its young about 

 with it from their earliest infancy. No bird — as Dr. Lincecum remarks — walks 

 with more ease or more gracefully than the Kildeer, young or old. 



Though generally more common in the interior, the Kildeer is occasionally abun- 

 dant in certain localities near the sea. Dresser found it equally common near the 

 sea-coast, and inland in Texas at almost every pool. This bird breeds in Texas, both 

 in the interior and on the coast, as Mr. Dresser received its eggs from Systerdale 

 taken late in May; and when on Galveston Island, May 26, a German, Avho was 

 with him, found a young Kildeer in a depression in the ground made by the hoof of 

 a horse. 



Major Wedderburn mentions this bird as a winter visitant of Bermuda, where 

 specimens were occasionally obtained from the 12th of November to the 4th of 

 March. Mrs. Hurdis adds that it is principally found in the months of December 

 and January in small flocks ; that its note is peculiarly soft and pleasing. It is not 

 seen in the spring. 



While a few occasionally winter in the Central Western States, in all the South- 



