PLOVERS, ETC.: KILLDEER 
253 
forms, the click beetles, the southern corn-leaf beetle; horse flies, diving beetles 
injurious in fish hatcheries, marine worms that prey upon oysters, and crawfish. 
It is the most beneficial of our shore-birds. 
General Habits. —Any one who has hunted for a Killdeer’s nest 
in a young corn field or potato patch and watched the troubled parent 
crouch, run, squat as if on eggs, and rise only to crouch and run again, 
will readily agree with Abbott Thayer’s statement that a bird can be 
concealed on such ground merely by counter-shading and color. Its 
conspicuously colored tail may well mislead the enemy by its sudden 
disappearance on squatting, while when spread, it may help the mate 
and young to keep their direction in following behind. Corn fields, 
potato patches, wheat fields, and similar places around ranches seem to 
be favorite resorts of the Killdeer, for here they can find both food and 
water, and a certain amount of protection. In the Pecos V alley, Mr. 
Ligon reports, they are very common and nest where they find sufficient 
water to “hold out until the young can be reared to a point where they 
can travel” (MS). 
When watching a Killdeer’s nest, Mr. Warren found that the parents 
carried every bit of shell away within two hours after the hatching. 
The beautiful little striped nestlings, he says, become very quick and 
active almost as soon as they are dry, running with surprising speed. 
Their notes are small counterparts of those of their parents. 
Though they are never so gregarious as other shore-birds at Mesilla 
Park, Professor Merrill found them abundant all over the valley, wher¬ 
ever there was any water in river, pond, lake, roadside pool, irrigated 
fields, or water tanks in corrals. Here as elsewhere, he says, “the Kill¬ 
deer is very tame, curious, and querulous, and greatly given to expres¬ 
sing its disapproval of one’s presence on its feeding or breeding grounds 
by an oft repeated peevish ‘pe-ep.’ When the cold weather comes in 
December,” he adds, “most of the birds go, but a few individuals may 
infrequently be seen in the winter. In the fall, they come up on the 
mesa to feed more than at any other time” (MS). 
The Killdeer is so commonly associated with fields and roadsides 
that it is especially interesting to hear from Mr. Clarence Cottam of its 
being found swimming, apparently quite at home, on the wide, swift¬ 
flowing Green River of Utah (1928, pp. 207-208). 
The pleasant cry of kill-dee , kill-dee is so familiar that it is recognized 
when heard during migration on moonlight nights as well as in daylight 
when the notes come from high in the sky before the travelers become 
visible. 
Additional Literature.—Bailey, G. A., Bird-Lore, XXIII, 233-238, 1921, 
XXIV, 323-327, 1922 (bird photography).— Ciiadbourne, A. P., Auk, VI, 255- 
263, 1889.— Dutcher, William, Educational Leaflet 23, Nat. Assoc. Audubon 
Soc.— Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer, Game Birds of California, 463-469, 1918. 
