128 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



rapid, performed by regular and quick beats of the wings, but 

 sometimes the bird holds its pinions arched and stiff and skims 

 for some distance. It also frequently keeps them elevated for a 

 second or so after it has alighted, and sometimes unfolds them 

 when in the act of running. It is said to frequent fallows and 

 grass lands in search of food, and not unfrequently to wade into the 

 water for a little distance when running quickly round the margin 

 with bobbing head and flicking tail. The food of the Killdeer 

 Plover consists of insects, worms, and crustaceans, and the bird 

 may sometimes be noticed following the plough and searching the 

 newly-turned earth for these creatures. Its note is a loud, clear, 

 whistling tiit-tut-tiit, which probably becomes a trill during the 

 pairing season, and when the bird is alarmed is drawn out into 

 too-it, something like that of our Ringed Plover. This latter has 

 been likened to the syllables kill-dee, whence the EngHsh name of 

 the bird has been derived by American sportsmen, who are apt to 

 dislike the Killdeer because its shrill note often disturbs more im- 

 portant game. It is said to be a very noisy bird, especially if much 

 disturbed or threatened by danger. In autumn the Killdeer Plover 

 becomes more gregarious, migrates in companies, and spends the 

 winter in flocks of varying size, just as our own Ringed Plovers do. 



Nidification. — The breeding season of the Killdeer Plover 

 varies a good deal according to the latitude of the nesting 

 grounds. In its southern haunts the beginning of April appears 

 to be the time, in the central portion of its distribution not until 

 May, whilst at the northern limits of its summer range breeding 

 does not commence until June. The nest is merely a hollow in 

 the ground, lined with a few bits of dry grass or other herbage, 

 but in many cases even this slight provision is omitted. The 

 eggs are four in number, pale buff in ground colour, blotched and 

 spotted with blackish brown, and underlying markings of brownish 

 gray. They measure on an average i'6 inch in length by I'l inch 

 in breadth. Both parents assist in hatching the eggs, and become 

 very demonstrative when disturbed from the nest, feigning 

 lameness and trying to lure the intruder away by various artifices. 

 Only one brood appears to be reared in the year. 



Diagnostic Characters. — ^gialUis, with the lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail coverts chestnut-buff. Length, 9 to lo inches. 



