THE KILLDEER. 



637 



wing but unceasing stridor, and take thei 



The birds be- 



ff b\- alternate flights 



places in the \'an. 

 lieve themselves extremely clever as they lead yc^u 

 and sprints, and you may hear them indulge from time to time in a low rapid 

 titter, tccecc-t. which ytm may be sure is quite at your expense. All this 

 racket is bad enough at best, and one may be really sorry to have intruded 

 at first, but when the whole operation is gone thru with again the next time 

 vou happen that way, and when you know that the young are long since 

 flying", all this fuss 

 and outcry is dis- 

 tinctly a n n o y i n g. 

 One feels as if the 

 Killdeer had con- 

 tracted the habit of 

 yellow - journalism 

 and couldn't let go. 



The Killdeer nests 

 in f a 1 1 o w fields, 

 plowed ground, and 

 open prairie, or else 

 upon the open bars 

 of r i \- e r cotirses, 

 never \-erv far from 

 water, but by no 

 means confined to it. 

 The four eggs are 

 in\-ariablv placed 

 with the little ends 

 together, so that they 

 may occupy the least 

 room possible ; and 

 this appears quite 

 necessai"}- when we 

 note how large they 

 are in comparison with the parent bin 

 bark or dried rabbits" dung serves for the lining, but often the eggs are laid 

 upon the bare ground. Once, in Yakima County, I found what I think must 

 be regarded as the ideal environment for these eggs. An upland gra\"el-bed. 

 peculiar to that region, was composed of disintegrating fragments of a light 

 brown la\a mingled with the soil. Each pebble of the bed was scrawled and 

 spotted b_\- a black lichen, as th(j tar had been carelessly flung about. Upon 

 this bed reposed four Killdeer eggs. W hen j'ou saw them you saw them, 

 because their outlines were rounded instead of angular ; but the moment the 



-.'■*i-.'^ . ^ 



.Alt*- 





ifc^ 





Redrazi'ii by Allan Brooks from Photo by the Author. 

 EXTICEMENT. 



Sometimes a little grass or crumbled 



