214 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



The nest is a mere hollow in a cornfield, pasture, or almost any open 

 field and usually there is little in the way of lining for the nest, merely a 

 few grass blades or weed-stalks, or sometimes only a few smooth pebbles. 

 Commonly the eggs are three or four, surprisingly large for the size of the 

 bird, and dull buffy white, thickly spotted with black. They measure 

 1.47 by 1.04 inches. 



This bird has an exasperating habit of signaling the approach of a 

 stranger, or indeed of any individual which it chooses to consider an in- 

 truder. Often it will fly half a mile with loud outcries to meet and scold 

 the sportsman who is trying to get within shot of a flock of ducks, and it 

 will follow a man or a dog from one field to another during the nesting 

 season, calling attention to the enemy by its loud outcries. If the nest be 

 approached the bird redoubles its complaints, and if the young or eggs are 

 discovered will throw itself on the ground before the intruder and feign 

 lameness or serious injury in the attempt to draw him away. Both young 

 and old have the habit of squatting and remaining quiet under certain 

 circumstances, but they are much more hkely to rush into danger than to 

 tr}^ to avoid it. 



The Killdeer is not considered a good table bird, and the few which are 

 killed by gunners are shot commonly in anger or merely for the sake of 

 practice in wing shooting. 



From the fact that the eggs are found in May or June (occasionally 

 even in April in southern Michigan), and often again late in July, it seems 

 probable that this species rears two broods, but it is exposed to so many 

 dangers, and in particular it persists so obstinately in nesting in fields 

 which are soon to be plowed, that the nests found in July may indicate 

 only second or third attempts to rear a brood. 



After the nesting season Killdeers frequently collect in flocks of twelve 

 to thirty and frequent the edges of ponds and streams, sometimes associa- 

 ting with other shore birds. Although most abundant in cultivated 

 districts, the species is fairly well distributed over the entire state and no 

 doubt nests in every part of the state where conditions are at all favorable. 



The Killdeer is a voracious insect eater and is particularly valuable to 

 the farmer on account of its fondness for grasshoppers and for the insects 

 of cultivated land. It eats some seeds it is true, but we have never heard 

 a complaint of injury to wheat or any other grain, and it doubtless confines 

 its seed eating largely to grass seeds and weed seeds. Aughey took as many 

 as 49 locusts from a single Killdeer's stomach in Nebraska, and the average 

 in six stomachs was 44. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult: Bill shorter than head, straight, stout; forehead, chin, and broad ring round 

 upper neck, pure white; below the white collar is a black band, broadest in front, very- 

 narrow at the back where it is sometimes incomplete; below this is a white crescent across 

 the chest, bouiuled below by a broad black band across the breast; rest of under parts 

 l^ure white; a black l^ar across front of crown, and a blackish stripe from base of bill across 

 side of head, bounding tlie white collar above; a white stripe back of the eye, usually ending 

 in buff; top of iiead and middle of back brownish gray, the feathers often tipped with 

 rusty; lower back, rumj) and vipper tail-coverts light buff to deep rust-red ; tail long, much 

 graduated, the middle feathers blackish, tipped with brown, the outer feathers white or 

 buffy white at base, with sub-terminal black spaces and broad white tips; a conspicuous 

 white wing-bar, and both primaries and secondaries with large white patches. Iris brown, 

 eye-lids bright orange-red, bill black, feet and legs yellowish. Sexes alike, and little 

 seasonable change in plumage, but young birds in the fall show numerous rusty-edged 

 feathers on the back and wings. Length 10 to 11.25 inches; wing 6.20 to 6.75; tail 3.60 

 to 4.10; culmen .70 to .90; tarsus 1.40 to 1.55. 



