Music of the Wild 



merely to ii[)pea.se the appetite! And liow these 

 tiny lei^'s fly! In fright or excitement they flash 

 across the sand and stones with sucli rapidity that 

 yon can not distingnish their motion, and the ba- 

 bies a])pear hke smaU airsliips. 



In all marsh nuisic there is no more plaintive 

 and wholly s^\eet tone than their faltering, plead- 

 infant ing l)al)y notes in rendering the tribal call of the 

 Pipings fjjjjjjjy Tliey pijie it out as if imcertain about its 

 being right, but jjcrfeetly confident that it ^vill 

 bring protection, provided they make it sufficiently 

 ])athetic. There never should be any A\-onder that 

 these mothers so valiantly risk their lives for their 

 babies. 



The wonder should be if they did not; and when 

 we stop to think of it we realize that it is for these 

 things we love them. To know the killdeer is to 

 delight in its music and respect its character. Kx- 

 cepting the u])land s])ecies, that also like marshy 

 places, the remainder of the members of the plover 

 family are more constant to the marsh, taking 

 jjleasure trips, nesting and raising their babies, and 

 their notes are among the most attractive of its 

 music. They have three distinctive utterances com- 

 monly heard. 



The common plover note is a clear, penetrating- 

 whistle, long-drawn, mellow, resonant — beautiful 

 music. Their mating cry, very seldom heard ex- 

 cept between a pair busy with household affairs 



362 



