. Nestlings of forest and marsh . sly like hismammas. In running he spread his littlewings like an ostrich, and hid in the grasswith astonishing rapidity. Poor baby!His was a sad fate, for he ate the poisoneddye of some fur thrown over him as a brooder. We found him dead from theeffects. One bright day in June we came upona family of kildeer consisting of a motherand five little ones. Resolving to try fortheir photos, the Man with the Camera con-cealed it in a bush and, retiring thirty feet,lay down behind a stone-pile. The old birdhad become much alarmed upon the firstsuspicion of danger, and
. Nestlings of forest and marsh . sly like hismammas. In running he spread his littlewings like an ostrich, and hid in the grasswith astonishing rapidity. Poor baby!His was a sad fate, for he ate the poisoneddye of some fur thrown over him as a brooder. We found him dead from theeffects. One bright day in June we came upona family of kildeer consisting of a motherand five little ones. Resolving to try fortheir photos, the Man with the Camera con-cealed it in a bush and, retiring thirty feet,lay down behind a stone-pile. The old birdhad become much alarmed upon the firstsuspicion of danger, and flew overhead utter-ing her plaintive kildee, kildee. Theyoung could not fly, and were only just outof the shell; so after some lively chasing Icaptured four of them, one by one. Placingthem in approximate range of the camera, Iwent to a distant part of the field, hoping themother would go to them. This she didS3 NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH almost immediately, and led or drove themtoward the bushes, believing herself safe, yet. still suspicious and father was off in thedistance trying to keep myattention fixed upon himwhere I was, three-hundred feet away. Theyoung were beautiful creatures, marked withdark rings around their necks like the parents,and ran like little chickens, peeping in thesame high key but with an upward inflec-tion, making two distinct syllables of thenote, pee-ep. The mother was so timid it was difficultiS4 SANDPIPERS, QUAIL, AND KILDEER to get near her. Much more shy than theplover, she took to flight while the lattersat on a fence-post and called little family stayed in the neighbor-hood several weeks, and were to be seennearly every day. The efforts of the littleones to learn to fly were comical. At firstthe wings were lifted in running, and whenthey were two weeks old they could notrise from the ground more than half aninch, but scudded along as do little seemed to pick up their own foodfrom the very first, and I nev
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
