62 WADING BIRDS. 



KILLDEER. 



^GIALITIS VOCIFERA. 



Char. Above, grayish brown ; band on forehead above and behind 

 eyes white bordered with black; two bands across chest blacl<; rump 

 and base of tail rufous ; tail with subterminal band of black and tipped 

 with white; patch of white on wing; under parts white. Length lo 

 inches. 



Nest. On the edge of a sandy beach or margin of a marshy meadow ; 

 a mere depression in the sand or turf, sometimes slightly lined with 

 dry grass. . 



^SS^- Usually 4; buff, sometimes drabish, marked with fine spots of 

 dark brown; 1.55 X i.io. 



The well-known, restless, and noisy Killdeer is a common 

 inhabitant throughout the United States, in nearly all parts of 

 which it is known to breed, wintering, however, generally to 

 the south of Massachusetts. In the interior it also penetrates 

 to the sources of the Mississippi, the remote plains of the 

 Saskatchewan, and Vieillot met with it even in St. Domingo. 

 On the return of spring it wanders from the coast, to which it 

 had been confined in winter, and its reiterated and shrill cry is 

 again heard as it passes through the air, or as it courses the 

 shore of the river, or the low meadows in the vicinity of the 

 sea. About the beginning of May it resorts to the fields or 

 level pastures which happen to be diversified with pools of 

 water, and in such situations, or the barren sandy downs in the 

 immediate vicinity of the sea, it fixes upon a place for its nest 

 which is indeed a mere slight hollow lined with such straw and 

 dry weeds as come most convenient. In one instance Wilson 

 saw a nest of the Killdeer curiously paved and bordered with 

 fragments of clam and oyster shells ; at other times no vestige 

 of an artificial nest was visible. The eggs, usually four, large 

 and pointed at the smaller end, are of a yellowish cream color 

 thickly marked with blackish blotches. 



At all times noisy and querulous to a proverb, in the breed- 

 ing-season nothing can exceed the Killdeer's anxiety and 

 alarm ; and the incessant cry of kildeer, ki/deer, or fe te de dif, 

 and ie dit, as they waft themselves about over head or descend 



