CHARADRIIDrE — THE PLOVERS — aEG-IALITIS. 
151 
ing to Audubon — to run “ like a Kildeer ” lias in some parts of the country passed 
into a proverbial phrase. This bird is also equally active on the wing, and mounts 
at pleasure to a great height in the air with a strong and rapid flight, which can lie 
continued for a long distance. Sometimes it skims quite low over the ground, and 
at other times mounts to a great height ; and during the love-season it is said to 
perform various kinds of evolutions while on the wing. 
Its note consists of two syllables, resembling in sound kill-dee , rapidly enun- 
ciated; and occasionally, when the bird is much excited, only the last syllable is 
repeated after the first utterance of the double note. Generally it is sounded in a 
loud, clear tone, and as a signal of alarm. It not unfrequently startles other birds 
and puts them on their guard, this habit rendering the Kildeer an object of dislike 
to the hunter. During the summer — especially when it is breeding, and afterward, 
even when its young are fully grown — the Kildeer is a noisy anft restless bird, and 
is disturbed by the near approach of man. It will often squat until one is close 
upon it, and will then suddenly fly up or run off', startling the unwary intruder by 
a loud and clear cry. According to Audubon, during the winter it is an unusually 
silent bird. At this season it is found dispersed over the cultivated fields in Florida, 
Georgia, the Carolinas, and other Southern States, diligently searching for food. 
It is said to breed in Louisiana in the beginning of April, in the Middle States 
in May, and on the Saskatchewan in June. Its nest is of very simple construction, 
and is usually a mere hollow in the ground, without any lining, or with merely 
a few bits of dry grasses. Occasionally it is said to construct a nest of grass in a 
bunch of plants, but this is very rarely done. Wilson mentions having seen nests 
of this species with small fragments of shells forming a rim around the eggs. 
During incubation the parents alternate in sitting upon their eggs, and do not leave 
them day or night, differing in a marked manner, in this respect, from the melodus 
and the Wilsoni. The young run about the instant they leave the shell. If the 
nest is approached during incubation, or when the young are in danger, both parents 
resort to various manoeuvres to entice away the intruder : the female droops her 
wings, utters plaintive notes, and simulates lameness ; the male is more demon- 
strative, and dashes about his head with angry vociferations. 
The eggs are usually four in number, never more — so far as known to us — 
and very rarely less. They are pyriform in shape, being much rounded at one 
end, and pointed at the other. Their ground, when the egg is fresh, is a rich cream- 
color, fading into a dull white, over which are profusely spread blotches of varying 
shape and size, of dark purplish brown, approaching black. These increase in size 
toward the larger end, and cover a greater proportion of it, but are finer and more 
scattered elsewhere. They measure 1.65 inches in length by 1.13 inches in their 
greater breadth. 
Genus -S3GIALITTS, Boie. 
JEgialitis, Boie, Isis, 1822, 558 (type, Cliaradrius hiaticulct, Linn.). 
JEgialites, Boie, Isis, 1826, 978. 
JEgialeus, Reichenb. 1. c. (type, Cliaradrius semipalmatus, Bonap.). 
Leucopolius, Bonap. Cornpt. Rend. XLIII. 1856, 417 (type, Cliaradrius leucopolius, Wagl. = C. mar- 
ginatus, Vieill. ). 
? Cirripedesmus, Bonap. Compt. Rend. 1856, 417 (type, Cliaradrius cirrhipedesmus, Wagl. = Ch. mon- 
golicus, Pall.). 
Char. Similar to Oxyechus, but the species of smaller size, with shorter and less graduated 
tail (less than half as long as the wing), and rump concolor with the back (grayish). 
