BIRDS OF 



This species has, by some authors, been described as identical 

 with the British bird of the same name. Dr. Coues who has 

 made a careful comparison of the two, tells us they are different, 

 and, as one distinguishing mark which is constant, mentions 

 that the lining of the wings w r hich is pure white in the European 

 bird, is, in the American species, ashy-gray. This distinction I 

 have confirmed by specimens of each in my possession. 



GENUS ^EGIALITIS BOIE. 



SUBGENUS OXYECHUS REICHENBACH. 



114. ^GIALITIS VOCIFERA (LiNN.). 273. 



Killdeer. 



Above quaker-brown with a greenish tinge, sometimes most of the feath- 

 ers tipped and edged with orange-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts orange 

 brown ; most of tail feathers white at base and tip, suffused with orange-brown 

 in part of their length and with 1-3 black bars ; secondaries mostly white, 

 and primaries with a white space ; a black bar across the crown, and two 

 black bands on the neck and breast ; forehead and entire under parts except 

 as stated, white; bill, black; feet, pale; eyelids, scarlet. Length, 9-10 inches; 

 wing, 6 or more ; tail, 3^, much rounded ; tarsus, about i. 



HAB. Temperate North America, migrating in winter to the West 

 Indies, Central and Northern South America. 



Nest in the grass or shingle in the vicinity of water. 

 Kggs 4, clay color marked with blackish-brown. 



A noisy, well known bird, generally distributed throughout 

 Ontario, and abundant in the North-West. In April, even 

 before the snow is quite gone, the shrill cry of the Killdeer is 

 heard in the upper air as it circles around, surveying its old 

 haunts, and selecting a bare spot on which to settle. 



Its favorite resorts are pasture fields or waste places near 

 water, where it spends much of its time on the ground, some- 

 times running with great speed, and again sitting quietly as if 

 aware that it is more likely to escape observation in this way 

 than by moving. It can scarcely be called gregarious, yet, in 

 the fall, when the young birds are getting strong on the wing, 

 they may be seen in companies of ten, or a dozen, visiting the 

 muddy shores of streams and inlets, till about the end of Sep- 

 tember, when they all move off" south. 



116 



