. 5^. KILLDEER (Oxyechus vociferus). These 



handsome but noisy birds are abundant 

 throughout the United States and southern 

 Canada except in New England and the east- 

 ern Provinces, where they are only locally or 

 casually found. The sexes are alike in plu- 

 mage, and immature birds are only a little 

 duller plumaged than adults. They are very 

 noisy at nearly all times; they delight in 

 chasing one another over the fields, all 

 screaming their loud, strident kill-dee, kill- 

 dee, and when they happen near the nest of 

 a pair, all the Killdeer in the neighborhood 

 promptly arrive and add their voices to 

 those of the owners. 



They are not at all confined to the prox- 

 imity of water, in fact during the nesting 

 season they may not be within miles of it. 

 They are useful birds to the agriculturist, 

 for their food is chiefly of injurious insects. 

 They run rapidly and gracefully, stopping 

 every few feet to stand erect and look about 

 them. Their eggs are laid in pastures or 

 cornfields in slight depressions with scant 

 lining of straw and pebbles; they are creamy- 

 buff, thickly speckled and blotched with 

 blackish-brown. 



SEMI-PALMATED PLOVER (Mgial- 

 itis semipalmata) . Commonly known as 

 "Ring-necks" Considerably smaller than 

 Killdeer, measuring but 7 in., while the last 

 species measures about 10 in. Breeds from the Gulf of St. Lawrence and 

 Keewatin north to the Arctic coast, migrates throughout the United States, 

 both coasts and interior, and winters from the Gulf States to Chile and 

 Patagonia. During migrations they are particularly abunda.nt on mud 

 flats and protected beaches. The experienced gunner rarely shoots them, 

 for they are too small to be of consequence and are too easy to get. But the 

 small boy with his first gun may create havoc in their ranks, for they are 

 still legally game, although it is the consensus of opinion among sportsmen 

 as well as ornithologists that all small shore birds should be protected. 

 "Ring-necks" are the most confiding of birds; they will feed along the 

 water's edge within two or three feet of you, if you are sitting quietly. 



KILLDEER 

 SEMI-PALMATED PLOVER 



42 



