508 KILDEER PLOVER. : 
The Kildeer is more abundant in the Southern States in winter than 
insummer. Among the ricc-fields, and even around the planters’ 
yards, in South Carolina, I observed them very numerous in the months 
of February and March. ‘There the negro boys frequently practise 
the barbarous mode of catching them with a line, at the extremity of 
which is a crooked pin, with a worm on it. Their flight is something 
like that of the Tern, but more vigorous ; and they sometimes rise to 
a great height in the air. They are fond of wading in pools of water, 
and frequently bathe themselves during the summer. ‘They usually 
stand erect on their legs, and run or walk with the body ina stiff, 
horizontal position ; they run with great swiftness, and are also strong 
and vigorous in the wings. Their flesh is eaten by some, but is not 
in general esteem; though others say, that, in the fall, when they 
become very fat, it is excellent. 
During the extreme droughts of summer, these birds resort to the 
gravelly channel of’ brooks and shallow streams, where they can wade 
about in search of aquatic insects: at the close of summer, they gen- 
erally descend to the sea-shore, in small flocks, seldom more than ten 
or twelve being seen together. They are then more serene and silent, 
as well as difficult to be approached. 
The Kildeer is ten inches long, and twenty inches in extent; the 
bill is black; frontlet, chin, and ring round the neck, white; fore part 
of the crown and auriculars, from the bill backwards, blackish olive ; 
eyelids, bright scarlet; eye, very large and of a full black; from the 
centre of the eye backwards, a strip of white; round the lower part 
of the neck is a broad band of black; below that, a band of white, 
succeeded by another rounding band or crescent of black; rest of the 
lower parts, pure white; crown and hind head, light olive brown: 
back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, olive brown, skirted with brownish 
yellow ; primary quills, black, streaked across the middle with white ; 
bastard wing, tipped with white; greater coverts, broadly tipped with 
white ; rump and tail-coverts, orange; tail, tapering, dull orange, ' 
crossed near the end with a broad bar of black, and tipped with orange, 
the two middle feathers near an inch longer than the adjoining ones ; 
legs and feet, a pale light clay color. The tertials, as usual in this 
tribe, are very long, reaching nearly to the tips of the primaries; ex- 
terior toe, joined bv a membrane ‘o the middle one, as far as the first 
joint. 
