SEMIPALiMATED PLOVER 85 



twenty inches. As a rule the Kildeer is not 

 very wary. 



This species is a dweller in North America 

 from the Saskatchewan country southward. It 

 is found in the winter months in the West In- 

 dies, Central America and northern South 

 America. It breeds anywhere throughout this 

 wide range of territory, usually laying from 

 two to four eggs, dull drab or cream color, with 

 brownish blotches upon them. 



SEMIPALMATED PLOVEE. 



(JEgialitis semipalmata.) 



Common on almost every sandbar and mud- 

 bank along our coast are the "ringnecks," 

 filling the air with their soft and pleasant pip- 

 ing. Their notes, at times wild and mournful, 

 are always in accord with the swash of the 

 sea. Inhabiting the same ground and often as- 

 sociating with the smaller sandpipers, where 

 not much molested they show the same trustful 

 and confiding disposition as these little neigh- 

 bors, but where the "summer boarder" harries 

 them daily they soon become as wild and wary 

 as any of the shorebirds. 



