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. 1 
succeeded once, in Washington, in 
affording succor to a brooding Kill¬ 
deer whose artless solicitude had 
rather intrigued my heart. When 
the Hood-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 1 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 1 give in some detail the circumstances 
attendant upon the taking of the portrait on page 1306. It was on the 
Taken in Kern County Photo by the Author 
FIRST STEPS 
1305 
