Music of the Wild 



the sun, high above you their breasts gleam silver- 

 like, and they fling through space their lovable 

 "Kill-deer, kill-deer!" cry until you recognize in 

 them one of the attractions that draws you there. 

 Over desk and counter all the long winter you have 

 hungered for their exquisite notes. Now they are 

 a treat for your ears, and your eyes follow the 

 graceful gleaming figures across the sky with ad- 

 miration and interest you never before realized you 

 had felt in them. 



Enough of the instinct of the plover family 

 clings to the killdeer to induce us to believe it is 

 Kilideer a true marsh bird, for it lands there on arrival and 

 Notes nun t s food until it is plentiful everywhere. But 

 when nesting-time comes it is quite as likely to seek 

 upland and prairie as to remain around the marsh. 

 Two peculiarities of a brooding killdeer are always 

 worth mentioning. Since the nest is a mere hol- 

 low of earth, with only a few clods and chips 

 drawn together, the eggs are so colored as to be 

 indistinguishable from their surroundings, and so 

 sharply pointed that the severest winds only circle 

 them on their bases, but do not roll them away. 

 As a further preventive of this the mothers always 

 place them with the four sharp points nosing each 

 other in the nest. 



Also, the killdeer is so fanatically devoted to 

 its young that its tones are plaintive with anxi- 

 ety. A great difference can be distinguished be- 

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