464 The IVater-fowl Family 



KILLDEER PLOVER 

 (^yEgialitis vociferd) 



Adult male and female in breeding and winter phimage — Top of 

 head and upper parts, grayish brown, inclining to umber ; rump 

 and upper tail-coverts, rufous ; forehead and broad superciliary 

 stripe, throat, nuchal collar, and lower parts, white ; front of 

 the crown, loral stripe extending toward the occiput, collar 

 around the neck, and band across breast, black ; primaries, 

 dusky, the inner quills marked on their outer webs with white ; 

 tail, pale rufous brown variegated with white, long, marked 

 with a subterminal black bar with white tips, the middle pair 

 of feathers tipped with buff; under parts, white ; bill, black ; 

 iris, brown ; eyelids, red ; legs and feet, grayish. 



Young — Resembles the adult, but the feathers of the upper part 

 more or less marked with rusty. 



Downy young — Upper parts, grayish brown, finely speckled with 

 black ; forehead, flanks, and lower tail-coverts, pale brownish 

 buff; lines on lores, surrounding crown, in centre of back, across 

 wings, on sides, and around neck, broadening on chest, black ; 

 line around neck, last joint of wing, and rest of lower parts, white. 



Measurements — Length, 10 inches; wing, 6.50 inches; tail, 3.50 

 inches; tarsus, 1.50 inches; culmen, .75 inch. 



Eggs — Four in number; pyriform in shape ; ground color, pale buff, 

 profi-isely blotched with brown, most marked on the larger end ; 

 measure 1.65 by 1.13 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds in Lower California, Mexico, and Jamaica, perhaps 

 the Bahamas, and throughout the United States, except possibly 

 southern Florida, north to Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, 

 Hudson Bay, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia; rare in the 

 northeastern portion of its range. Winters from New Jersey, 

 sometimes Massachusetts, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, 

 Texas, Utah, California, and the coast of British Columbia, south 

 to Paraguay and Chili, and in Bermuda. Has been taken in 

 Great Britain. 



While not uncommon on the coast, we associ- 

 ate the killdeer with the West, a graceful orna- 



