190 Union Bay 



of the reasons I have since heard have completely satis- 

 fied me. 



Of the other marsh guests which engage in such move- 

 ments, the killdeer has always seemed the next most con- 

 spicuous. If the habit is due to nervousness I have never 

 known a bird which might more properly bob and dip. Its 

 species name, vociferus, is properly descriptive of its habits. 

 Its local names are noisy plover, chattering plover, and one 

 writer has described it briefly as "a very noisy bird." If it was 

 in the marsh I did not have to see it to know it was there. 

 Sooner or later I have always heard a kill-dee or a kill-deer 

 uttered and reuttered in a high pitched tone, usually, fol- 

 lowed by a trilling deer-deer-deer-deer, repeated time after 

 time and at an increasing tempo. If a bird can be described 

 as nervous, it is this talkative, fluttering show-off, which 

 goes into a tantrum every time its nest is threatened, next 

 wallows on the ground when the invader is close, and then 

 flutters, struggles, and cries madly if the aproaching person 

 gets within two or three yards of the sand or gravel de- 

 pression in which the four eggs are placed. 



I have seen the killdeer many times in August, and as I 

 watched, it would raise and lower its head while the rear 

 dropped correspondingly, an abrupt and rough movement 

 with no apparent useful purpose. It frequently repeated the 

 act, oftentimes while it was walking up and down a flat and 

 protesting the approach of the canoe or when standing on a 

 bit of driftwood. I have always considered the bird a hand- 

 some creature, and especially when the sun shines on its 

 conspicuous markings— a general brownish color with two 

 black bands on the breast, much reddish color on the tail, 

 a white stripe on the forehead, and a white ring around the 

 neck. The underparts are white, the bill black, and the legs 

 grayish-brown. The dignity of its appearance, in the rare 

 moments when it stands still, vanishes with the resumption 

 of the convulsive jerk and bob. When the killdeer becomes 



