THE OOLOGI^T 



70 



The Hazard Memorial Museum 



of Comparative Oology 



on Monday, the seventeenth of April 



at half after three o'clock 



in Mission Canyon 



We congratulate Bro Dawson and 



his associates on tlie prospect of new 



room and ample quarters. — R. M. B. 



THE KILLDEER 



It was the 26th of March 1921. Clear 

 and somewhat windy, it was a typical 

 March day, a day that strongly im- 

 bued me with that breatli of the ad- 

 vancing spring that stimulates a wild 

 desire to roam fields and woods in 

 quest of birds and let one's duties go 

 undone. However, I was on duty 

 bent a's I followed the path across the 

 blue grass pasture wliere the cattle 

 grazed the closely cropped grass. A 

 keen eye and ear for all things or- 

 nithological revealed a pair of Black 

 Vultures circling in the clear sky, sev- 

 eral singing Meadowlarks and cawing 

 Crows, a Bewick's Wren's ditty com- 

 ing from the orchard, and a flock of 

 Vesper Sparrows which took wing at 

 my approach. 



My thoughts were centered on the 

 earliness of the Kentucky spring sea- 

 son as compared with the very late 

 season of 1920. Already, at this early 

 date, an apple tree in tlae orchard was 

 beginning to blossom and the vege- 

 tation, generally, was ahead of the sea- 

 son. Many of the migratory birds 

 were earlier than usual; only today a 

 grasshopper Sparrow was seen, Thus 

 my thoughts drifted as I crossed the 

 pasture and I became almost oblivious 

 as to what was going on in the blue 

 grass field when the sudden and un- 

 expected outcry of a Killdeer brought 

 me to an abrupt halt. About thirty 

 yards away Killdeer wildly flopped un- 

 der the very feet of one of the cows, 

 her loud and excited cries clearly 

 demonstrating that the name vocifer- 



ous was not an empty title. 



Killdeer had long led me astray as 

 to her nestings, never once giving me 

 the slightest hint and always my 

 search for a nest was without result. 

 But now Killdeer had "spilled the 

 beans," obviously unintentionally, but 

 evidently her cries had the desired 

 effect on Jersey as the cow moved a 

 few yards to continue her grazing. 

 Without giving the matter a second 

 thcught I turned back determined to 

 find Killdeer's nest or forever ac- 

 knowledge my defeat. Approaching 

 the spot where Killdeer was flopping 

 under Jersey's feet, only a few sec- 

 onds previously, two killdeers ran 

 swiftly over the ground ahead of me. 

 I was riot to be tricked by running 

 Plovers, so with a vengence a thor- 

 cugh search for the nest began. This 

 time, however, it was not a vain 

 search nor was it of long duration. 

 In a depression about one inch deep 

 and four or five feet wide, in the cen- 

 ter of perhaps a shovel full of small 

 spawls which laid on bare ground be- 

 side a stone, were two eggs. A few 

 scattered pieces of short grass, very 

 small leaves, and some very small 

 stones lined the excavation. The site 

 was well chosen, being on a stony 

 spot where some years previously 

 some rocks had been broken and re- 

 moved from the field. Consequently 

 spawls and little piles of small stones 

 lay all about, and the coloration of 

 Killdeer's eggs harmonized perfectly 

 with such surroundings. After mak- 

 ing a careful survey of the nesting site 

 and the environs I left Killdeer and 

 her mate to attend to their own affairs. 

 On the following day at 8:30 a. m. 

 there were still only two eggs in the 

 nest, and Killdeer was nearby as I ap- 

 proached. A third visit to the nest 

 about 7:30 on the 29th found three 

 eggs, and at 3 p. m. there was a com- 

 plete set of four. It was cool nesting 

 weather, the temperature at sunrise 



