WATER BIRDS. 



213 



South America the writer has sometimes seen flocks pass in rapid succession 

 for many hours at a time. 



Although they extend their migrations to all parts of the southern 

 hemisphere, even to Australia and Patagonia, they are not known to nest 

 anywhere except in Arctic regions, the American form nesting largely in 

 Alaska and British America to the northwest of Hudson Bay. Three or 

 four eggs are laid in a slight hollow in the ground. They are buff, grayish 

 olive, or brownish, and spotted with brownish black. They average 

 2.07 by 1.40 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Similar in all its plumages to the Black -bellied Plover, except in three respects, viz.: 

 The hind toe is always absent, the axillars are pale smoky gray instead of clear black, and 

 the upper parts are always distinctly spotted with buffy or pale yellow. This latter pattern 

 is seen also in the young Black-belly, but the yellow spots then are fewer and duller. Length 

 9.50 to 10.80 inches; wing 6.80 to 7.40; culmen .80 to 1; tarsus 1.55 to 1.82. 



116. Killdeer. Oxyechus voc'ferus {Linn.). (273) 



Synonyms: Noisy Plover. — Charadrius vociferus Linn., 1758, Wils., Nutt., Aud. — 

 Aegilitis vociferus, Bonap., Cass., Baird, Coues. — Oxyechus vociferus, Reich., 1853, Ridgw., 

 1881. — Charadrius torquatus, Linn., 1766. 



Figure 57. 



Unique among our plover in having two black bands across the upper 

 breast, and the rump and upper tail-coverts bright cinnamon brown. 



Distribution — Temperate North America, breeding north to New- 

 foundland and Manitoba, migrating to the West Indies and Central and 

 northern South America. Bermuda. 



The Killdeer is too well known to merit any extended notice. It spends 

 the entire warmer half of the year with us, arriving from the south as soon 

 as any considerable amount 

 of bare ground appears in 

 the spring, and lingering in 

 autumn until the first snow 

 falls. Probably the greater 

 number arrive during the last 

 of March and first of April 

 and depart toward the end 

 of September, but consider- 

 able numbers come earlier 

 and stay later. 



The Killdeer frequents wet 

 and dry places alike, but it 

 shows a decided preference 

 for newly plowed fields and 

 especially for the edges of the 

 shallow muddy pools which 

 abound everywhere throughout the state. It is one of the noisiest of the 

 shore birds, and in Coues new Key we find the name Noisy Plover given as 

 one of its synonyms. Though not exactly a gregarious bird, it is seldom 

 found alone, being most often seen in little companies of two to eight, 

 except during the nesting season when it is found only in pairs. 



Fig. 57. Killdeer. 



From Baird, Brewer and Ridgway's Water Birds of North 



America. (Little, Brown «fe Co.) 



