212 BULLETIN 14 6^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Aretas A. Saunders (1926) gives the ^following excellent de- 

 scription : 



The calls are mainly of three sorts. The first is the common call heard 

 when one approaches one or more birds, or the vicinity of a nest : dee dee dee 

 dee-ee kildee dee-ee, etc., the notes usually slurred slightly upward at the end, 

 at least the longer ones. A second call is the long trilled t-rrrrrrrrrrrrrr, often 

 heard when the nest or young are threatened, and when the birds are fighting 

 or displaying. The third call is one from which the bird evidently has derived 

 its name. It is usually indulged by birds flying about in the air in loose 

 flocks, particularly early in the morning or toward evening. A number of 

 observers or writers on the notes of tliis species seem not to have separated 

 this call from tlie first one. It differs always by the fact that the notes slur 

 downward, instead of upward, on the end. I should write it kildecah kildeeah 

 kildeeah, at least in those fonns v\'here the first note is lower in pitch than 

 the second. It is often rendered, however, when the first note is highest in 

 pitch, when it sounds more like keedeeah keedeeah. 



The name chewekee by which it has long been known on the Caro- 

 lina coast, according to Arthur T. Waj^ne, is probably descriptive 

 of its cries. 



Field marks. — The killdeer is a marked bird in the field, both on 

 account of its plumage and on account of its voice. Its plover ways, 

 its long straw-colored legs, its long tail with buff-colored upper 

 coverts and rump and the two black bars on the breast are all good 

 field marks. It can not be mistaken for any other bird if these 

 points are borne in mind. 



Fall. — The fall, for the same reason as the spring migration, is 

 not as marked with the killdeer as with our other shore birds. Wil- 

 liam Row^an (192G), writing of Alberta, says: "The latest killdeers 

 have been noted in the fall weeks after the freeze-up." Dr. Arthur 

 P. Chadbourne (1889) recorded a memorable reverse flight of kill- 

 deer in fall on the Atlantic coast, due to the great November storm 

 of 1888, which distributed them within a mile or two of the coast 

 as far north as Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. 



Gaiiie. — Fortunately the killdeer is now on the protected list from 

 which it should never be removed, for it is too valuable and attrac- 

 tive a bird to be shot for sport. Before this protection occurred, 

 the birds, as we have seen, were almost exterminated in some parts 

 of the country. In other parts, luckily, they seem to have come under 

 the protection of food prejudice. Thus W. L. Dawson (1909), w'rit- 

 ing of the birds of Washington State, says, " Fortunately for them, 

 the flesh of the killdeer is not esteemed for food by humans, so they 

 are allowed to gather in peace in full companies." 



Enemies. — Besides man, now happily pacified, the killdeer has 

 little to fear in the way of enemies besides a few of the larger hawks 

 and owls. H. H. Kopman (1905) relates a curious case where he 



