THE KILLDEER 99 



the most common and the best known of these birds is 

 the killdeer. I have known these birds practically all my 

 life, and have never been in any part of the United States 

 where they are not found, altho of course they are much 

 more abundant in some places than in others. But it has 

 been only within the last ten or fifteen years that I have 

 had the opportunity to know them intimately. From my 

 class room I can look out over a pasture and see from one 

 to two dozen killdeers almost any time. There is a small 

 draw that heads in this pasture that or a large part of 

 the year is more or less swampy. If I start across this 

 part of the pasture, these birds from all sides begin scream- 

 ing "killdeer, killdeer/' and I see them running ahead of me 

 very much as quails often do; but they do not run far 

 before taking flight. For seventeen years no one has been 

 allowed to shoot them. Probably no birds living there 

 now have ever been shot at. For this reason they are 

 tame, and even when they fly do not go more than a few 

 rods before alighting. 



In spite of my busy life I have had opportunity to 

 watch these birds carefully. I find that they are experts 

 in locating cut-worms or angleworms even tho these 

 are buried under the soil, and that they are equally ex- 

 pert in digging down to them with their long, sharp bills. 

 Their food consists largely of these worms, caterpillars, 

 grasshoppers and other insects. If other foods run 

 short, they feed on the young succulent grass that is sure 

 to be found in swampy places. They particularly like to 

 run over the garden in the springtime. When the gar- 

 den is being plowed they make it a point to run over the 

 newly plowed ground in search of angleworms or moth 

 chrysalids that may be turned out. As the early vegetables 



