BIRDS OP MINNESOTA. 151 



^GIALITIS yOCIFERA(L.). (273.) 



KILLDEER. 



A common summer resident, reaching the State generally 

 amongst the earliest migrants of its family, if not the earliest 

 itself. In 1869 they came on the 18th of March, and in 1884, 

 on the 25th of that month, between which days in March are 

 nine-tenths of their arrival records for two decades. 



At these times they are in parties of 5 to 7 or 8 individuals, 

 "roaming about high in air, tracing the shore of the river, or 

 running amidst the watery flats and meadows. As spring 

 advances, they resort to the newly plowed fields, or level 

 plains bare of grass, interspersed with shallow pools; or dry 

 sandy fields. In some such situation they generally choose to 

 breed, about the beginning of May. The nest is usually 

 slight, a mere hollow, with such materials drawn in around it 

 as happen to be near; such as bits of sticks, straws, pebbles 

 or earth. * * * In some cases there are no vestiges of a 

 nest. The eggs are usually four, of a bright rich cream, or 

 yellowish clay color, thickly marked with blotches of black. 



* * * * Nothing can exceed the alarm and anxiety of 

 these birds during the breeding season. Their cries of 

 kill-deer, kill-deer, as they winnow the air over head, drive, and 

 course around you, or run along the ground counterfeiting 

 lameness, are shrill and incessant." (Wilson). No locality I 

 have visited in the State, where the conditions favoring their 

 habits exist, has failed to have a fair representation of these 

 familiar birds from March till late in October, and sometimes, 

 the tenth of November. In the early part of their residence, 

 they are seen in the small flocks mentioned, but after a short 

 time in pairs oxAj until in July, when the brood full grown, 

 with the parents, constitute small flocks again, in which they 

 are mostly seen until their departure for the winter. Dr. 

 Hvoslef reports them common for the species in the southern 

 part of the State, and Mr. Washburn found them the same in 

 the western, while it has been mine to find them fully up to 

 their observations in the central and northern to Duluth. 

 When thoroughly fattened they are fairly good eating in the 

 autumn. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Wings long reaching to the end of the tail, w^hich is also 

 rather long; head above and upper parts of body light- brown 

 with a greenish tinge; rump and upper tail coverts rufous. 



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