The Killdeer 



KILLDEERS 



Oxyechus is the noisemaker extraordinary, the professional scold, the yap 

 yap artist, the irrepressible canine of the bird world. In season and out 

 of season her (or his) shrill cries arouse the countryside to attention, and 

 in nine cases out of ten the object of her vociferous spite is a human being. 

 Vociferus is the arch accuser of the human race, and as sure as a mere 

 man sets foot upon a portion of the domain which she counts her own, 

 every ingenuity of alarm is brought to bear upon him, every passion and 

 prejudice of the wild things is appealed to, and the miserable son of Adam 

 is denounced as a wrecker of homes, an ogre and an outcast. This is 

 unfortunate, whether one's intentions happen to be honest or not. No- 

 body enjoys being barked at. But be you Beauty's self, or a burglar, it 

 is easier to placate a barking cur than it is to silence the clamorous 

 guardian of the meadows, this self-constituted tutelary of all lesser fowls. 

 The case is bad enough when the bird has real interests at stake. 

 If you are actually near the nest there is some excuse for alarm, and the 



IJOO 



