CHARADRIID.E — THK PLOVERS — OXYECHUS. 



149 



country than in otliors, and as a jjfMU'val tliinj; is more numerous in the interior than 

 near the sea-coast. A huge proportion are migratoiy in tlie winter to the West 

 Indies and Northern South Auu-rica. 



Tliroughout New England it is found generally distriWuted, but nowhere common, 

 or only so in very exceptional instances. A few are seen as far eastward as Calais, 

 init only in the fall, and these arc evidently accidental visitors. A single specinuMi 

 is recorded as taken in England. In the interior it is found nuich farther north than 

 ni'ar the coast. Iiichardson notes its common presence in the Valley of the Saskatch- 

 ewan, where it arrives about the liOth of April, and where, during its residence, it 

 frequents the gardens an<l cultivated fields of the trading-jjosts in (pu'st of its food. 

 It is very familiar, hovering over the heads of intruders, and reiterating its loud, 

 shrill cry. Cai)tain IWakiston noted its first arrival at Fort Carlton, in 1858, 

 on the lUth of April, finding it a bird diftiindt to ajiproach within shooting dis- 

 tance. M. liourgeau also obtained specimens, as well as their nests and eggs, on the 

 Saskatchewan. 



In Northeastern Illinois, near Lake Michigan. Mr. Nelson regards this species 

 as only a summer resident, arriving the 1st of March and departing in October, 

 although stragglers often .a]»pear in the mihler days of mid-winter. 



In Southeastern ( hegcm Captain Uendire found it one of the earliest birds to arrive 

 in spring, and generally distributed in summer. 



On Long Island, according to Mr. J. II. Hatty, the Kihleer remains until (luite 

 late in the fall, and is seen again very eiirly in the spring. He does not think, how- 

 ever, that it stays there throughout the winter, although one was procured by him 

 on the 27th of Novembi-r, IST'J, when the ground was frozen hard and all the ponds 

 were covered with ice : its stomach contained common ground-worms. 



The Kihleer breeds as far south at least as Mexico. Dr. Berlandier states that 

 it lives in the neighborhood of Matamoras, in the vicinity of swamps, and that it 

 is also found throughout the entire State of Tamaulipas, where it is known as the 

 Tildeo. 



Dr. Lincecum states that, in the neighborhood of Long Point, Texas, it remains 

 during winter in large flocks, flies, and feeds, and sounds its ])eculiar note as much 

 at night, seemingly, as in the day. It occtasionally nests about the rocky streamlets 

 on the prairies of that country. He never met with a nest, though he has once 

 been very near to one, the old bird trying by various pretences to allure him away 

 from a certain locality ity the side of a rocky stream. It carries its young about 

 with it from their earliest infancy. No bird — as Dr. Lincecum remarks — walks 

 with more ease or more gracefully than the Kihleer, young or old. 



Though genertilly more common in the interior, the Kihleer is occasionally abun- 

 dant in certain localities near the sea. Dresser found it equally common near the 

 sea-coast, and itdand in Texas at almost every imol. This bird breeds in Texas, both 

 in the interior and on the coast, as Mr. Dresser received its eggs from Systerdale 

 taken late in May; and when on Galveston Island, ]\Iay 2(5, a German, who was 

 with hinj, found a young Kildeer in a depression in the ground made by the hoof of 

 a horse. 



Major Wedderburn mentions this bird as a winter visitant of Bernuida, where 

 specimens were occasionally obtained from the 12th of November to the 4th of 

 March. Mrs. Hurdis adds that it is principally found in the months of December 

 and January in small flocks ; that its note is peculiarly soft and pleasing. It is not 

 seen in the spring. 



While a few occasionally winter in the Central Western States, in all the South- 



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