KILLDEER 481 



ultimately open into the ureter. These tubules begin near the 

 surface of the lobule, as small invaginated capsules, each surround- 

 ing a glomerulus of fine arterial blood-vessels, through the walls of 

 which the urinary matter exudes from the blood into the tubule. 

 The rest of the arterial blood entering the Kadneys through the 

 renal arteries (which are branches from the dorsal aorta and from 

 the sciatic artery) passes through a capillary network, and is thence 

 conducted through the efferent renal veins into the system of the 

 inferior vma cava (see Vascular System). 



KILLDEER, a common and well-known American Plover, so 

 called in imitation of its whistling cry, the Charadrius vociferus of 

 Linnaeus, and the JEgialitis vocifera of modern ornithologists. 

 About the size of a Snipe, it is mostly sooty-brown above, but 

 shewing a bright buflF on the tail coverts, and in flight a white bar 

 on the wings ; beneath it is pure white except two pectoral bands 

 of deep black. It is one of the finest as well as the largest of the 

 group commonly known as Einged Plovers or "Eing Dotterels,"^ 

 forming the genus ^gialitis of Boie. Mostly wintering in the 

 south or only on the sea-shore of the more northern States, in 

 spring it spreads widely over the interior, breeding on the newly- 

 ploughed lands or on open grass-fields. The nest is made in a 

 slight hollow of the ground, and is often surrounded with small 

 pebbles and fragments of shells. Here the hen lays her pear- 

 shaped, stone-coloured eggs, four in number, and always arranged 

 with their pointed ends touching each other, as is indeed the 

 custom of most Limicoline birds. The parents exhibit the greatest 

 anxiety for their offspring on the approach of an intruder : the hen 

 runs off with drooping wings and plaintive cries, while the cock 

 sweeps around, gesticulating with loud and angry vociferations. 

 It is the best- known bird of its Family in the United States, 

 throughout which it is found in all suitable districts, but less 

 abundantly in the north-east than further south or west. In 

 Canada it does not range further to the northward than 56° N". 

 lat., and it is not known to occur in Greenland, or hardly in 

 Labrador, though it is a passenger in Newfoundland every spring 

 and autumn.- In winter it finds its way to Bermuda and to some 

 of the Antilles, but it is not recorded from any of the islands to 

 the windward of Porto Eico. However, in the other direction it 

 goes very much further south, travelling down the Isthmus of 

 Panama and the west coast of South America to Peru. 



^ The word DoTTErvEL is properly applicable to a single species only (see 

 above, pp. 161, 162). 



^ A single example is said to have been shot near Christchurch, in Hamp- 

 shire, in April 1857 {Ibis, 1862, p. 276), and a female was undoubtedly shot on 

 Tresco, one of the Scilly Isles in January 1SS5 by Mr. F. Jenkinson {Proc. 

 Zool. Soc. 1885, p. 835). 



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