210 THE KILDEER PLOVER. 



between the young birds and their parents; nay, by this time, like most 

 other species, the former are as fully able to fly as at any other period. 



While I was residing in Pennsylvania, the son of my tenant the miller 

 was in the habit of catching newly-hatched birds of every sort, to bait his 

 fish-hooks. I had rather peremptorily remonstrated against this barbarous 

 practice, although, I believe, without effect. One morning I met him 

 returning from the shores of the Perkioming creek, with his hat full of 

 young Kildees. He endeavoured to avoid me, but I made directly up to 

 him, peeped into his hat and saw the birds. On this I begged of him to go 

 back and restore the poor things to their parents, which he reluctantly did. 

 Never had I felt more happy than I did when I saw the young Plovers run 

 off and hide under cover of the stones. 



The Kildee seems to be remarkably attached to certain localities at par- 

 ticular periods. Whilst at General Hernandez's in East Florida, I acci- 

 dentally wounded one near a barn on the plantation of my accomplished 

 host. Yet it returned to the same spot for the ten days that I remained 

 there, although it always flew off when I approached it. 



The food of this species consists of earth-worms, grasshoppers, crickets, 

 and coleopterous insects, as well as small Crustacea, whether of salt or fresh- 

 water, and snails. Now and then they may be seen thrusting their bills 

 into the mud about oysters, in search of some other food. During autumn, 

 they run about the old fields and catch an insect which the Blue-bird has 

 been watching with anxious care from the top of a withering mullein stalk. 

 They run briskly after the ploughman, to pick up the worms that have been 

 turned out of their burrows. Now standing on the grassy meadow, after a 

 shower, you see them patting the moist ground, to force out its inhabitants. 

 During winter, you meet with them on elevated ground, or along the mar- 

 gins of the rivers; but wherever you observe one about to pick up its food, 

 you clearly see its body moving in a see-saw manner on the joints of the 

 legs, until the former being so placed that the bill can reach the ground, the 

 object is seized, and the usual horizontal position is resumed. 



The flesh of the Kildee is generally indifferent, unless in early autumn, 

 when the young birds of that season are fat, juicy and tender. At all 

 seasons of the year, the Kildee is however shot by inexperienced sportsmen, 

 and many of these birds are offered for sale in our markets. Little differ- 

 ence is observed at any period in the plumage of the adult birds. 



Kildeer Plover, Charadrius vociferus, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 73. 



Charadrius vociferus, Bonap. Syn., p. 297. 



Charadrids vociferus, Kildee?^ Plover, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. ii. p. 368. 



Kildeer Plover, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 22. 



Kildeer Plover, Charadrius vociferus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. p. 191; vol. v. p. 577. 



