^EGIALITES VOCIFERUS : KILDEER PLOVER. 169 



The Kildeer's presence in New England is under cir- 

 cumstances entirely different from those that attend the 

 appearance of the two species last described. Though it 

 is one of the birds most generally disposed over North 

 America, and though its piercing cry is often heard in 

 our fields and along our estuaries, the bird is less 

 common in New England and eastward than in most 

 other portions of our country. Not at one with the 



FIG. 38. KILDEER PLOVER. Natural size. 



other species of its own genera in having a specially re- 

 stricted habitat, it also differs from the species of Cha- 

 radrius and Squatarola in breeding indifferently through- 

 out its extensive range the bird being apparently wise 

 enough to give up that search for the North Pole which 

 is the fashionable infatuation of the present day. Some- 

 times it reaches New England from its winter quarters 

 by the latter part of February ; its numbers increase in 

 March ; it nests with us, and seems in no haste to de- 

 part in the fall, lingering, like the Kingfisher, till it is 

 fairly frozen out. The nest of this bird and of the 



