Plovers SHORE AND MARSH BIRDS. 



Note: "Killdecr! kill-deer!" 



Season: Once a summer resident, now rare, remaining from March 



to November. 

 Breeds : Through its range. 



Nest : A hollow in the grass or sand in vicinity of fresh ivater. 

 Eggs : 4, the ground, as with the eggs of many Waders, varying from 



clay colour to cream, marked with brownish black. 

 Range : Temperate North America, migrating in winter to the West 



Indies, and Central and northern South America. 



You may liear this Plover cry and yet never see the bird 

 itself, though the black-banded breast, white frontlet, and 

 red eyelids make it easy to identify. It nests in our marsh 

 meadows, arriving in March, with the Bluebirds and Song 

 Sparrows, lingers until ice has formed on the edges of the 

 ponds, and yet we do not think of calling it a common bird. 

 According to Wilson, the Killdeers are somewhat nocturnal 

 in their habits, especially in feeding upon the worms that 

 then rise to the surface of the ground. Their loud cry — 

 " Killdeer ! Kill-d-e-e-r ! " — has all the shrillness of the Jay's 

 scream, and the Plover uses it frequently to mislead in- 

 truders or lure them away from his nest. Coues says that 

 " they abound in the West, are not gregarious or maritime 

 extensively, but somewhat irregularly migratory, and are 

 very noisy birds." 



Seinipalinated Plover : ^gialitis semlpalmata. 



Ring Plover. 



Plate XI. FiCx. 11. 



Length : 7 inches. 



Male and Female : Bill black, orange at base. An orange ring around 



eye. Above a dark ash-gray. Below white, with a black ring 



across breast and above this a white ring across back of neck. 



Half-webbed yellow feet. 

 Season : "Abundant migrant, seen on flats at low tide. May and late 



July to late September." 

 Breeds : North from Labrador. 

 Bange : Arctic and subarctic America, migrating south throughout 



tropical America as far as Brazil and Peru. 

 234 



