1,30 THE CONDOR Vol. XI three hundred yards distant, occasionally giving this same whistle. Only once or twice did we hear the full Upland Plover "song". On June 14, 1908, we located a pair of plover that undoubtedly had a nest not far from the shore of the lake, but several careful searches were unsuccessful. This pair of birds was most demonstrative on July 4 and 5. On July 11 their actions plainly indicated that young ones were near at hand. Oxyechus vociferus. KILLDEER. The first sound that greeted us in the morning and the last thing we heard at night was the dreary monotonous cry of the Killdeer, and even in the dead of night their notes were occasionally heard. The birds were encountered every- where: on the lake shores, in the marshes and often back on the dry prairie. They arrived about the middle of March (March 10, 1907, is my earliest Fig. 56. KILLDEER AND FOUR EGGS BURIED BY BURYING BEIq]TLIq]S AFTER PARENT HAD DIIq]D ON I?]GG8 date), and by the middle of April were abundant. Quoting from my notes of April 26, 1907: "The Killdeer have evidently begun nesting as we did not see one-tenth as many around the lakes as we did last week (April 21); but they are common in isolated pairs farther back on dry land. We found two broken eggs on the lake shore and one on the dry prairie." The earliest nest was found May 10, and the eggs hatched May 16. The bulk of the nests were found during the latter half of May, but nests with eggs were found throughout the month of June. One young of the year was seen July 28, which was unable to fly at that late date. Mr. Hersey was fortunate enough to see one set of eggs hatch. He says the parent birds carried every bit of shell away from the nest within two hours after the hatching. The birds' actions when about the nest were always confusing and we did not flush the parent from
