Plovers 



nimbly about the corn field, feeding; but what they did with 

 their eggshells ever remained a mystery. 



This common plover of pastures and cultivated fields, of lake- 

 sides and marshes, or any broad tracts of land near water, that 

 seems indispensable to its happiness, is in decided evidence be- 

 cause of its wild, noisy cry even when we cannot see the bird; 

 but the two black bands across its breast, its white forehead and 

 red eyelids easily identify it whenever met. As a rule one sees 

 flocks of these plovers only a-wing, for they scatter when 

 feeding. Sometimes the kill-dee, hill-dee sounds low and sweet, 

 with a plaintive strain in it; but let any one approach the bird's 

 haunts, and the voice rises higher and shriller until it would seem 

 the strident notes must soon snap the vocal cords. Cows, 

 horses, sheep, and the larger poultry that wander over a farm do 

 not alarm these birds in the least. In their presence they are 

 gentle and almost tame, but a man is their abhorrence in regions 

 where they have been persecuted; elsewhere they are not con- 

 spicuously wild. Yet their flesh is musky and worthless from 

 the point of view of the sportsman, who seldom wastes shot on 

 it. A startled bird will run swiftly away rather than fly at 

 first, stop occasionally to look back at the villain still pursuing 

 it, crying complainingly all the while, and perhaps flutter in 

 low, short flights to lure the intruder still farther away. But the 

 killdeer, with its long, perfect wings, is a strong, steady high-flyer, 

 however erratic and uncertain its flight may be when suddenly 

 flushed by some innocent stroller taking a short cut through the 

 pasture. Restless and full of fears, real or imaginary, there is 

 scarcely an hour of the day or the night when its voice is not 

 raised, until sportsmen have come to regard so keen a sentinel as 

 a nuisance. Dr. Livingston met with a close kinsman of the 

 killdeer in Africa that he described as "a most plaguey sort of 

 public spirited individual that follows you everywhere, flying 

 overhead, and is most persevering in his attempts to give fair 

 warning to all animals within hearing to flee from the approach 

 of danger." 



On the ground, where the killdeer spends most of its time, it 

 moves about daintily, quickly, even nervously; for it never remains 

 still except for the instant when it seems to gaze at an intruder 

 with withering contempt. Since worms, that are its favorite food, 

 come to the surface after sundown, this bird, like many others of 



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