THE OOLOGIST 



70 



The Hazard Memorial Museum 



of Comparative Oclogy 



on Monday, tlie seventeenth oi; April 



at half afLer three o'clock 



in Mission Canyon 



We congratulate Bro Dawson and 



his associates on the prospect of new 



room and ample quarters. — R. M. B. 



THE KILLDEER 



It was the 26th of March 1921. Clear 

 and somewhat windy, it was a typical 

 March day, a day that strongly im- 

 bued me with that breath of the ad- 

 vancing spring that stimulates a' wild 

 desire to roam fields and woods in 

 quest of birds and let one's duties go 

 undone. However, I was on duty 

 bent as I followed the path across the 

 blue grass pasture where the cattle 

 grazed the closely cropped grass. A 

 keen eye and ear for all things or- 

 nithological revealed a pair of Black 

 Vultures circling in the clear sky, sev- 

 eral singing Meadowlarks and cawing 

 Crows, a Bewick's Wren's ditty com- 

 ing from the orchard, and a flock of 

 Vesper Sparrows which took wing at 

 my approach. 



My thoughts were centered on the 

 earliness ol: the Kentucky spring sea- 

 son as compared with the very late 

 season of 1920. Already, at this early 

 date, an apple tree in the orchard was 

 beginning to blossom and the vege- 

 tation, generally, was ahead of the sea- 

 son. Many of the migratory birds 

 were earlier than usual; only today a 

 grasshopper Sparrow was seen Thus 

 my thoughts drifted as I crossed the 

 pasture and I became almost oblivious 

 as to what was going on in the blue 

 grass field when the sudden and un- 

 expected outcry of a Killdeer brought 

 me to an abrupt halt. About thirty 

 yards away Killdeer wildly flopped un- 

 der the very feet of one of tne cows, 

 her loud and excited cries clearly 

 demonstrating that the name vocifer- 



cug was not an empty title. 



Killdeer had long led me astray as 

 to her nestings, never once giving me 

 the slightest hint and always my 

 search for a nest was without result. 

 But now Killdeer had "spilled the 

 beans," obviously unintentionally, but 

 evidently her cries had the desired 

 effect on Jersey as the cow moved a 

 few yards to continue her grazing. 

 Without giving the matter a second 

 thcught 1 turned back determined to 

 find Killdeer's nest or forever ac- 

 knowledge my defeat. Approaching 

 the spot where Killdeer was flopping 

 under Jersey's feet, only a few sec- 

 onds previously, two killdeers ran 

 swiftly over the ground ahead of me. 

 I was not to be tricked by running 

 Plovers, so with a' vengence a thor- 

 cugh search for the nest began. This 

 time, however, it was not a vain 

 search nor was it of long duration. 

 In a depression about one inch deep 

 and four or five feet wide, in the cen- 

 ter of perhaps a shovel full of small 

 spawls which laid on bare ground be- 

 side a stone, were two eggs. A few 

 scattered pieces of short grass, very 

 small leaves, and some very small 

 stones lined the excavation. The site 

 was well chosen, being on a stony 

 spot where some years previously 

 some rocks had been broken and re- 

 moved from the field. Consequently 

 spawls and little piles of small stones 

 lay all about, and the coloration of 

 Killdeer's eggs harmonized perfectly 

 with such surroundings. After mak- 

 ing a careful survey of the nesting site 

 and the environs I left Killdeer and 

 her mate to attend to tlieir own affairs. 



On the following day at 8:30 a. m 

 there were still only two eggs in the 

 nest, and Killdeer was nearby as I ap- 

 proached. A third visit to the nest 

 about 7:30 on the 29th found three 

 eggs, and at 3 p. m. there was a com- 

 plete set of four. It was cool nesting 

 weather, the temperature at sunrise 



