130 SHORE BIRDS 



but for certain reasons it is difficult to form an acquaintance 

 with more than a very few of them. The majority of them 

 reach us only as birds of passage, on the way to or from their 

 breeding grounds farther north, and during the year are with 

 us only a few weeks. Others are so few in number, and live 

 in such remote localities, that they also are beyond our ac- 

 quaintance. As usual, therefore, we will introduce only 

 those species that are sufficiently abundant, long-tarrying 

 and generally interesting to make them worth knowing. 



The Killdeer Plover^ makes an excellent representa- 

 tive of a large section of this Order. It is of average size 

 and handsome appearance, and is such a loud and frequent 

 caller its presence is always well advertised. It is so widely 

 distributed that millions of people have seen it alive. It is 

 a bird of the inland ponds and pools, not of the seashore, 

 and it is found throughout the whole temperate portion of 

 North America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is not 

 a bird of heavily timbered regions, however, and is most 

 abundant in the lake regions of the Mississippi Valley. On 

 the prairies of the middle West, wherever there are small, 

 shallow ponds, or even pools in wet meadows, all through the 

 season of mild weather you will hear its clear and rather 

 strident cry oi " Kill-d-e-e-r! Kill-d-e-e-r!" And it is always 

 a pleasing sight to see this immaculate bird in snow-white, 

 brown and black plumage standing at the edge of a bit of 

 water — a stroke of living high-light in the landscape. I al- 

 ways liked the Killdeer, and, although I have seen hundreds, 

 and heard its cry a thousand times, I never wearied of its 



' Ox-y-e'chus vo-cifer-a. Length, 10.50 inches. 



