102 KNOWING BIRDS THROUGH STORIES 



and I have even known them to run to me — whether for 

 protection or because they thought I might have some- 

 thing to feed them I never could quite make out. They 

 grow rapidly and when three weeks old, if all has gone 

 well, are able to fly, but long before this time they have 

 become fast runners. It has always been a mystery to me 

 how these little fellows escape their enemies. I can under- 

 , stand well enough that their protective coloring saves them 

 from hawks and owls, but there are rats, snakes, ground 

 squirrels, and dozens of other small animals at large, and 

 anything as innocent as a little killdeer wandering over the 

 earth must meet these creatures frequently. That they 

 usually get by alive is proved by the ever increasing num- 

 bers that are seen in the pasture near by. 



I have stated that I have never seen the young killdeers 

 follow their mother as young quails follow theirs. Others, 

 however, have told me that they have seen the mother 

 killdeer running about on the ground with her young fol- 

 lowing her closely. The mother bird does not carry worms 

 to her young, but helps them to find their food on the 

 ground. In order to do this she must be with them a 

 great part of the time. I presume the reason I find 

 them alone so often is that the mother bird is on the wing 

 so much of the time that the little birds become scattered 

 while she is away. When they have the opportunity, they 

 doubtless follow her as other birds do. When night comes 

 the mother killdeer comes back to the vicinity of the nest, 

 calls her babies together, and hovers them during the 

 night. 



The killdeer is not a bird that minds the cold weather 

 as long as it can get plenty of food. In open winters they 

 used to stay all the year round in Iowa, but commonly 



