The Killdeer 
companies deployed over the dry sands of the upper beach, each as silent 
as a ghost, and each intent upon moving so discreetly as not to challenge 
the attention of the local Lares. It was a most comforting sight. 
The Killdeer favors open situations wherein convenient access to 
water offers, be they pastures, meadows, fallow fields, virgin prairies, 
lake beaches, or mud bars. Being a plover and not a snipe, the Killdeer 
Taken in San Luis Obispo County Photo by the Author 
NEST AND EGGS OF KILLDEER 
requires a firm footing. Though they haunt the edges of pools and wade 
belly-deep in water, on occasion, they neither dabble nor probe, but only 
snatch and glean—and “holler.” The Killdeer nests on the ground in 
the most exposed situations, preferably, but not invariably, those devoid 
of vegetation. The four eggs are always placed with the little ends 
inward, and are so closely crowded together into the deep hollow that the 
major axes incline as much as 45 or 50 degrees, and the larger apices 
measure sometimes only an inch and a half from egg to egg; this, of course, 
that the parent bird may have the maximum of covering power over 
the relatively enormous eggs. 
I 3°4 
