IMusic of the Wild 



the siui, high al)ove yoii their breasts gleam silver- 

 Hke, and they fling through space their l()\ab]e 

 "Kill-deer, kill-deer!" cry until you recognize in 

 them one of the attractions that draws you there. 

 Over desk and coimter all the long Avinter you have 

 hungered for their excjuisite notes. Xo\s' they are 

 a treat for yoiu' ears, and your e\es follow the 

 graceful gleaming figures across the sky with ad- 

 miration and interest you never before realized you 

 had felt in them. 



Enougli of the instinct of the ploA'er family 

 clings to the killdeer to induce us to believe it is 

 Kilideer a true marsli bird, for it lands there on arrival and 

 Notes 1jj,j)^j^ food until it is plentiful everywhere. But 

 when nesting-time comes it is quite as likely to seek 

 u])]and and prairie as to remain around the marsh. 

 T\\o ])eculiarities of a brooding killdeer are always 

 worth mentioning. Since the nest is a mere hol- 

 low of eai-th, with only a fe^v clods and chips 

 dra^Aii together, the eggs are so colored as to be 

 indistinguishable from their surroundings, and so 

 sharply ])ointed that the severest winds only circle 

 them on tlieir bases, but do not roll them away. 

 As a further preventive of this the mothers always 

 place them Avith the four sharp i[)oints nosing each 

 other in tlie nest. 



Also, the killdeer is so fanatically devoted to 

 its young that its tones are plaintive with anxi- 

 ety. A great difference can be distinguished be- 



358 



