FIELD-DAYS IN CALIFORNIA 



agine such a thing, at any rate) who does well 

 enough for an hour now and then, say once or 

 twice a year, but who would speedily become 

 unendurable as a daily intruder. 



The killdeer, withal, is a fine, handsome fellow 

 to look at, well set up, as we say (and how well 

 he knows it !), with his bright complexion, his 

 unrivaled twin breast-bands, and his highly orna- 

 mental tricolored tail, of which brilliant append- 

 age, by the way, he makes so splendid a use in 

 courtship-time ; and, if he possessed the very 

 smallest gift of silence, or knew enough to make 

 himself once in a while scarce, I should never 

 think of grudging him his multitudinous exist- 

 ence. As it is, he is one of God's creatures for 

 which I have lost pretty much all relish. At cer- 

 tain times of the year hardly a day passes in 

 which his ill-timed vociferations do not wear my 

 patience threadbare. 



Both the snowy plover and the killdeer are to 

 be found not only along the beach but in the 

 " Estero," so called, a ditch and tide-pool region, 

 some acres in extent, on the landward side of 

 the railway. This eyesore of a place, as the ordi- 

 nary citizen would describe it, and properly 

 enough from his point of view, sterile (in Spanish 

 esteril), homely, unclean, and at low tide not 

 precisely sweet-smelling, is a famous rendezvous 

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