Alfred Newton

“ KILLDEER, a common American plover, so called in imitation of its whistling cry, the Charadrius vociferus of Linnaeus, and the Aegialitis vocifera of modern ornithologists. About the size of a snipe, it is mostly sooty-brown above, but showing a bright buff on the tail coverts, and in flight a white bar on the wings ”

“ The parents exhibit the greatest anxiety for their offspring on the approach of an intruder. It is the best-known bird of its family in the United States, where it is less abundant in the north-east than farther south or west. ”

“ Mostly wintering in the south or only on the sea-shore of the more northern states, in spring it spreads widely over the interior, breeding on the newly ploughed lands or on open grass-fields. The nest is made in a slight hollow, and is often surrounded with small pebbles and fragments of shells. ”