146 BIRDS 



the alert, it runs and flies rapidly. It inhabits the shores, 

 beaches, and margins of both fresh and salt water. 



The food consists of niollusks, insects and their larva, 

 largely gathered from the sui-face of the earth in both damp 

 and dry places. 



Plovers are quite cosmopolitan in their range, and this 

 species has been recorded on either hemisphere. Thou- 

 sands of miles are covered annually in passing from its 

 Northern breeding range to the southern parts of South 

 America. Mariners have reported small groups of plovers, 

 sandpipers, and phalaropes resting upon the ocean hun- 

 dreds of miles from land. 



Cornfields and waste land are the areas occupied by 

 the killdeer while breeding. Two broods are frequently 

 reared in a season; the first setting hatches early in JNIay, 

 and four more eggs are laid late in July. 



I have four eggs taken June 21, 1903, from a cornfield 

 within the city limits of Chicago. The eggs are usually 

 deposited in a slight cavity lined with pebbles which har- 

 monize remarkably with the dull blotched egg. 



THE RING PLOVER* 



In their habits the plovers are usually active; they run 

 and fly with equal facility, and though they rarely attempt 

 to swim, are not altogether unsuccessful in that particular. 



The Semipahnated Ring Plover utters a plaintive whis- 

 tle, and during the nesting season can produce a few con- 

 nected pleasing notes. The three or four pear-shaped, 

 variegated eggs are deposited in a slight hollow in the 



