214 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
The nest is a mere hollow in a cornfield, pasture, or almost any open 
field and usually there is little in the way of lining for the nest, merely a 
few grass blades or weed-stalks, or sometimes only a few smooth pebbles. 
Commonly the eggs are three or four, surprisingly large for the size of the 
bird, and dull buffy white, thickly spotted with black. They measure 
1.47 by 1.04 inches. 
This bird has an exasperating habit of signaling the approach of a 
stranger, or indeed of any individual which it chooses to consider an in- 
truder. Often it will fly half a mile with loud outcries to meet and scold 
the sportsman who is trying to get within shot of a flock of ducks, and it 
will follow a man or a dog from one field to another during the nesting 
season, calling attention to the enemy by its loud outcries. If the nest be 
approached the bird redoubles its complaints, and if the young or eggs are 
discovered will throw itself on the ground before the intruder and feign 
lameness or serious injury in the attempt to draw him away. Both young 
and old have the habit of squatting and remaining quiet under certain 
circumstances, but they are much more likely to rush into danger than to 
try to avoid it. 
The Killdeer is not considered a good table bird, and the few which are 
killed by gunners are shot commonly in anger or merely for the sake of 
practice in wing shooting. 
From the fact that the eggs are found in May or June (occasionally 
even in April in southern Michigan), and often again late in July, it seems 
probable that this species rears two broods, but it is exposed to so many 
dangers, and in particular it persists so obstinately in nesting in fields 
which are soon to be plowed, that the nests found in July may indicate 
only second or third attempts to rear a brood. 
After the nesting season Killdeers frequently collect in flocks of twelve 
to thirty and frequent the edges of ponds and streams, sometimes associa- 
ting with other shore birds. Although most abundant in cultivated 
districts, the species is fairly well distributed over the entire state and no 
doubt nests in every part of the state where conditions are at all favorable. 
The Killdeer is a voracious insect eater and is particularly valuable to 
the farmer on account of its fondness for grasshoppers and for the insects 
of cultivated land. It eats some seeds it is true, but we have never heard 
a complaint of injury to wheat or any other grain, and it doubtless confines 
its seed eating largely to grass seeds and weed seeds. Aughey took as many 
as 49 locusts from a single Killdeer’s stomach in Nebraska, and the average 
in six stomachs was 44. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult: Bill shorter than head, straight, stout; forehead, chin, and broad ring round 
upper neck, pure white; below the white collar is a black band, broadest in front, very 
narrow at the back where it is sometimes incomplete; below this is a white crescent across 
the chest, bounded below by a broad black band across the breast; rest of under parts 
pure white; a black bar across front of crown, and a blackish stripe from base of bill across 
side of head, bounding the white collar above; a white stripe back of the eye, usually ending 
in buff; top of head and middle of back brownish gray, the feathers often tipped with 
rusty; lower back, rump and upper tail-coverts light buff to deep rust-red; tail long, much 
graduated, the middle feathers blackish, tipped with brown, the outer feathers white or 
buffy white at base, with sub-terminal black spaces and broad white tips; a conspicuous 
white wing-bar, and both primaries and secondaries with large white patches. Iris brown, 
eyelids bright orange-red, bill black, feet and legs yellowish. Sexes alike, and little 
seasonable change in plumage, but young birds in the fall show numerous rusty-edged 
feathers on the back and wings. Length 10 to 11.25 inches; wing 6.20 to 6.75; tail 3.60 
to 4.10; culmen .70 to .90; tarsus 1.40 to 1.55. 
