The Killdeer 



The nest, at times, consists of little more than the supporting earth 

 or gravel ; but oftener the nesting hollow is carefully lined with weed-stems, 

 bits of bark, chips, or fragments of cow-dung. On one occasion I found a 

 Killdeer proudly ensconced in the midst of a large dried "cow-flop" whose 

 center had been carefully chiseled away for the reception of her eggs. 



At Los Banos the nesting Kill- 

 deers are loosely associated with the 

 Black-necked Stilts. The choice of 

 such companionship must involve 

 real self-sacrifice upon the Killdeer's 

 part, for the Black-necked Stilt is 

 the one bird which can outshriek the 

 Killdeer. Moreover, the Killdeer is 

 helpless when the annual flood begins 

 to rise. Instead of scurrying about 

 and shoring up the threatened nest 

 with weeds and trash, as the Stilt 

 would do, the Killdeer only mourns, 

 while the waters invade, and eventu- 

 ally flow over the doomed eggs. I 

 succeeded once, in Washington, in 

 affording succor to a brooding Kill- 

 deer whose artless solicitude had 

 rather intrigued my heart. When 

 the flood-waters began to threaten, 

 I built a platform, set up on stilts, 



and placed thereon the sod containing her nest. At first the bird was 

 heart-broken, having no idea what had become of her eggs, and it was 

 only after a day's patient training, and the use of successive stages of sod 

 approaches, that the bird was led to accept her new and very prominent 

 tower of refuge. Even then I was obliged to provide a sod-covered 

 runway which led up to the platform, and as often as the Killdeer 

 approached or left her nest she used the runway, having no conception 

 of a nest situation except as embodied as a part of terra firma. 



From this and other experiments, we have learned something of the 

 psychology of the Killdeer, and know that she is a victim of predominant 

 impressions, to use the current phrase. A second mental limitation under 

 which the Killdeer labors, as indeed do all Shore-birds for the matter of 

 that, is that the imminence of danger is measured by its altitude on the 

 horizon. 



In illustration of this point I give in some detail the circumstances 

 attendant upon the taking of the portrait on page 1306. It was on the 



Taken in Kern County 



FIRST STEPS 



Photo by Ike A ulhor 



I305 



