CIIARADRIID^ — THE PLOVERS — JIGIALITIS. 



151 



ing to Audubon — to run "like a Kildeer" has in some parts of the country passed 

 into a proverbial phrase. This bird is also e(iually active on the wing, and mounts 

 lit pleasure to a great height in the air with a strong and rapid Hight, which can bo 

 continued for a long distance. Sometimes it skims (piite low over the ground, and 

 at other times mounts to a great height ; and during the love-season it is said to 

 perform various kinds of evolutions wliile on the wing. 



Its note consists of two syllal)les, resendding in sound kill-dac, rapidly enun- 

 ciated ; and occasionally, when the bird is imich excited, only the last syllable is 

 repeated after the first utterance of the doulilc note. (Jenerally it is sounded in a 

 loud, clear tone, and as a signal of alarm. It not unfrecpiently startles other birds 

 and puts them on tiieir guard, this habit rendering the Kildeer an object of dislike 

 to the hunter. During the summer — esi)ecially when it is breeding, and afterward, 

 even when its young are fully grown — the Kildeer is a noisy anil restless bird, and 

 is disturl)ed by the near approach of man. It will often s(pmt until one is close 

 upon it, and will then suddenly fly up or run off, startling the unwary intruder by 

 a loud and clear cry. According to Auilubon, during the winter it is an unusiuiUy 

 silent bird. At this season it is found dispersed over the cultivated fields in Florida, 

 Georgia, the Carolinas, and other Southern States, diligently searching for food. 



It is said to breed in Louisiana in the iK'ginning of April, in the Middle States 

 in May, and on the Saskatchewan in June. Its nest is of very simple construction, 

 and is usually a mere hollow in the ground, without any lining, or with merely 

 a few bits of dry grasses. Occasionally it is said to construct a nest of grass in a 

 bunch of plants, but this is very rarely done. Wilson mentions having seen nests 

 of this species with snuill fragments of shells forming a rim around the eggs. 

 During incvd)ation the parents alternate in sitting upon their eggs, and do not leave 

 them day or night, differing in a marked manner, in this respect, from the melodus 

 and the Wilson t. The young run alwut the instant they leave the shell. If the 

 nest is approached during incubation, or when the young are in danger, both jiarents 

 resort to various manoeuvres to entice away the intruder : the female droops her 

 wings, utters plaintive notes, and simulates lameness; the male is more demon- 

 strative, and dashes about his head with angry vociferations. 



The eggs are usually four in numlter. never more — so far as known to us — 

 and very rarely less. They are inriform in shape, being much rounded at one 

 end, and pointed at the other. Their ground, when the egg is fresh, is a rich cream- 

 color, fading into a dull white, over which are profusely sjiread blotches of varying 

 sliape and size, of dark purplish brown, ajjproaching black. These increase in size 

 toward the larger end, and cover a greater proportion of it, but are finer and more 

 scattered elsewhere. They measure 1.(m inches in length by 1.13 inches in their 

 greater breadth. 



Gexus 2IOIAI1ITIS, BoiE. 



jEgialUis, BoiE, Isis, 1822, 558 (tyiHj, Cluiradrius hiaiicitla, Linn.). 



^gialitcs, BoiE, Isis, 182(5, 978. 



^ijialcus, Ueuuksu. 1. c. (type, Charadrius semipalinatus, Bosap.). 



Leucopoliua, IJoxap. Comiit. Rend. XLIII. 1856, 417 (tyiie, Charadrius leucopolins, Waol.ss C. mar- 



ginatus, ViEII.l.. ). 

 ? Oirripcdcsmus, Bonap. Coiupt. Ueud. 1856, 417 (type, Cluiradrius civrhipcdesmus, WA0L.=C7t. won- 



golicus, Pall.). 



Char. Similar to Oxyechus, but the species of smaller size, with shorter and less graduated 

 tail (leus than half us long as the wing), aud ruuip coiicolor with the buck (grayish). 



