2 The Killdeer 
the ground in which to place their four pyriform eggs of a delicate creamy 
white tint thickly spotted or lined with chocolate-brown. Like the eggs of 
all Plovers, their size is out of all proportion to the size of the bird. 
The Killdeer does not waste any time in building a nest, and only in rare 
instances does it take the trouble to line the cavity in which it deposits its 
eggs. Alexander Wilson, however, records an interesting nest which he 
found “paved with fragments of clam and oyster shells, and very neatly 
surrounded with a mound or border of the same, placed in a very close and 
curious manner.” 
The young Killdeers have little use for a nest, after they are born, for 
the large size of the eggs (1.50 X 1.10 inches) permits the development of 
large, strong legs and feet, so the young are really never nestlings in the 
ordinary sense of the word, for they are prepared from birth to follow their 
parents abroad, not by flight but by running. They differ in this respect 
from the altricial birds, which do not leave their home until their wings are 
strong enough to support them in flight. The solicitude of the parents for 
their young is very marked. Wilson says: “Nothing can exceed the alarm 
and anxiety of these birds during the breeding season. ‘Their cries as they 
winnow the air overhead, dive and course about you, or run along the 
ground counterfeiting lameness, are shrill and incessant. The moment they 
see a person approach, they fly or run to attack him with their harassing 
clamour, continuing it over so wide an extent of ground that they puzzle 
the pursuer as to the particular spot where the nest or young are 
concealed.” 
Audubon’s description of the Killdeer’s habits at this time are so quaint 
that they are quoted also: “At this period, or during incubation, the 
parents, who sit alternately on the eggs, never leaving them to the heat of 
the sun, are extremely clamourous at sight of an enemy. ‘The female 
droops her wings, emits her plaintive notes, and endeavors by every means 
she can devise to draw you from the nest or young. The male dashes 
over you in the air, in the manner of the European Lapwing, and vociferates 
all the remonstrances of an angry parent whose family is endangered. If 
you cannot find pity for the poor birds at such a time, you may take up 
their eggs and see their distress; but if you be at all so tender-hearted as I 
would wish you to be, it will be quite unnecessary for me to recommend 
mercy.” ‘This is good advice, that I hope will be followed by every boy 
and girl who reads this leaflet, —in fact by every person. 
If you should discover a nest of the Killdeer, carefully note the exact 
spot where it is located. If it contains only three eggs, it will indicate that 
the clutch is not yet complete and a very brief visit, after an interval of a [ 
day or two, should be made. If four eggs are then found, it will show that 
incubation has commenced. Visits at infrequent intervals should then be 
made to ascertain the time that elapses before the young birds are hatched. 
