192 KILDEER PLOVER.
aover that completely conceals you, and you will see them peaceably and
silently follow their avocations for hours. In this respect the Kildeer
resembles the Lapwing of Europe, which is also called a restless and
noisy bird, because men and dogs are ever in pursuit of the poor thing,
which after all its vigilance often falls a prey to the sportsman, who condemns
it merely because it endeavours to draw him from its nest or young.
During winter, when undisturbed, the Kildeer is in fact an unusually silent
bird. In Louisiana, where it breeds and resides at all seasons, it has obtained
the name of " Piallard,1'' so strongly rooted are old prejudices.
The Kildeer, or more properly " Kildee,,,> so named on account of its
note, which may be imitated by the syllables kildee, kildee, dee, dee, dee,
appear in much greater numbers in the interior than along the coast.
Few are seen in the State of Maine; none, I believe, in Nova Scotia, any
more than in Newfoundland or Labrador. Inland, however, these birds
remove to a great distance north. Unless during winter, in fact, this
species is not wont to approach the shores of the sea, but prefers the
newly ploughed fields, the banks of clear rivers, or the elevated wornout
grounds of the interior. Few winter to the east of Boston, while during
the cold season they abound in the Southern States, although thousands
spend the most rigorous months in the Western Country. In the
Floridas, Georgia, and South Carolina, you find them dispersed through
the sugar, cotton and rice fields ; and now they are so gentle and so silent,
that you can hardly conceive why they should be called noisy birds.
x\round the pools, upon the marshes, and along the oyster-beds at low
tides, as well as on the extensive mud -flats, you will then meet with them
diligently searching for food, and not neglecting to watch you with distrust.
Even in the corn-fields and in company with Doves and Grakles,
•or by the side of some strolling Partridge, you may now and then spy
the Kildeer. At this period I have sometimes got so near to it that I
could clearly see the pale red margin of its beautiful eye. The bird
would perhaps run a few steps, when suddenly checking its course, it would
stand still, erect and rigid. Should I level my gun in jest, he would that
instant fly off low over the ground, removing to the distance of a hundred
yards, alight running as it were, advance twenty or thirty steps more,
and then stand still. I would now again approach it as before. Never
try it the third time, Reader, the Kildeer will denounce you as an enemy.
It will stretch its wings, fly across a river or field, and leave you to amuse
yourself as you may. Many a time have I been thus treated.
KILDEER PLOVER. 193
The flight of the Kildeer is strong and rapid, and is at times protracted
to a great distance. It skims quite low over the ground, or plays
at a great height in the air, particularly during the love season, when
you may see these birds performing all sorts of evolutions on wing. On
the ground their speed is such that it has become proverbial, and to " run
like a Kildee," is to move with the utmost possible agility. Their ordinary
posture when standing, might be called stiff, were they not so beautiful
in form and colouring. When pursued over a large space, they
are able to lead you from one spot to another more than twenty times in
the course of an hour; and the more you follow them, the more shy do
they become, until wearied and hungry, as the fox said of the grapes,
you will probably begin to think them poor and insipid after all.
Now you see the Kildee wading in the water, and observe how it
splashes it about. Down it lays itself, and with fluttering wings, seems
to enjoy the sight of the drops trickling over its silky back. Now dripping
and almost soaked to the skin, it retires to the warm earth, to dry
its plumage and clear it of insects.
This species breeds in Louisiana about the beginning of April; in the
Middle States a full month later, as well as in the Western Country and
farther north. Not one, however, has ever been found breeding in the
low lands of South Carolina, although these birds remain there until the
beginning of May. The nests are various, some being merely a hollow
scooped in the bare ground, while at other times the Kildee searches for
a place on the edge of a pond, forms a hollow, and constructs a nest of
grass, at the foot of a thick bunch of plants. Now and then small
pebbles and fragments of shells are raised in the form Lof a rim around
the eggs, on which the sitting bird is seen as if elevated two or three
inches. WILSON saw nests of this kind ; so have I ; and the circumstance
appeared as strange to me as that of the birds not breeding in the low
lands of the Carolinas. The eggs are almost always four, pyriform, well
pointed at the small end, an inch and five-eighths in length, an inch and
one eighth in diameter at the broadest part, and of a deep cream colour,
pretty generally marked all over with small irregular blotches of purplishbrown
and black. The young, as soon as hatched, run about. 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 clamorous at
sight of an enemy. The female droops her wings, emits her plaintive
notes, and endeavours by every means she can devise to draw you from
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