A Day on the Bay Shore, 



moh in color, with bars of dusky on the 

 grayish flanks. In the springtime the 

 rails breed in these same marshes where 

 they winter, laying some eight or ten 

 eggs of a buff color, spotted with 

 brown, the nest consisting of a few 

 dried tules, depressed in the center and 

 well hidden among the surrounding 

 weeds. 



Just back of the marsh-grass are 

 little muddy pools, flooded only at very 

 high tide, and now left to the kildeer 

 plovers. They are noisy fellows, re- 

 peatedly uttering their loud, shrill, 

 though unmusical cry — kill-dee! kill- 

 dee! The kildeer is a bird about the 

 size of a robin, rather plumper in 

 build, and with long, pointed wing- 

 feathers. Its head is white, variegated 

 with markings of black, and its white 

 breast is crossed by a double collar of 

 black. The back is grayish brown 

 and the rump bright rufous or cinna- 

 mon in color. The kildeer is a very 

 common bird, even in upland fields. 

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