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WADING BIRDS. 
KILLDEER. 
./Egialitis vocifera. 
Char. Above, grayish brown ; band on forehead above and behind 
eyes white bordered with black ; two bands across chest black ; rump 
and base of tail rufous ; tail with subterminal band of black and tipped 
with white; patch of white on wing; under parts white. Length to 
inches. 
Nest. On the edge of a sandy beach or margin of a marshy meadow ; 
a mere depression in the sand or turf, sometimes slightly lined with 
dry grass. 
Eggs. Usually 4; buff, sometimes drabish, marked with fine spots of 
dark brown ; 1.55 X i-io- 
The well-known, restless, and noisy Killdeer is a common 
inhabitant throughout the United States, in nearly all parts of 
which it is known to breed, wintering, hotvever, generally to 
the south of Massachusetts. In the interior it also penetrates 
to the sources of the Mississippi, the remote plains of the 
Saskatchewan, and Vieillot met with it even in St. Domingo. 
On the return of spring it wanders from the coast, to which it 
had been confined in winter, and its reiterated and shrill cry is 
again heard as it passes through the air, or as it courses the 
shore of the river, or the low meadows in the vicinity of the 
sea. About the beginning of May it resorts to the fields or 
level pastures which happen to be diversified with pools of 
water, and in such situations, or the barren sandy downs in the 
immediate vicinity of the sea, it fixes upon a place for its nest 
which is indeed a mere slight hollow lined with such straw and 
dry weeds as come most convenient. In one instance Wilson 
saw a nest of the Killdeer curiously paved and bordered with 
fragments of clam and oyster shells ; at other times no vestige 
of an artificial nest vvas visible. The eggs, usually four, large 
and pointed at the smaller end, are of a yellowish cream color 
thickly marked with blackish blotches. 
At all times noisy and querulous to a proverb, in the breed- 
ing-season nothing can exceed the Killdeer’s anxiety and 
alarm ; and the incessant cry of kildeer, kildeer, or te te de dit, 
and te dit, as they waft themselves about over head or descend 
