. Nestlings of forest and marsh, by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock; . d over this proceed-148 SANDPIPERS, QUAIL, AND KILDEER ing, and flying from fence-post to fence-postand down to the tall grass, gave utterancecontinually to piteous cries of distress, morelike a whistle or cherr than a bird was a weird ventriloquistic sound impos-sible to describe,— ** The fresh, free cry of a prairie uncaged call of an upland plover. They were evidently only a day old, andthe empty nest with broken shells was hiddenon the level ground just inside the edge of aclover-field. It was even a less pre
. Nestlings of forest and marsh, by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock; . d over this proceed-148 SANDPIPERS, QUAIL, AND KILDEER ing, and flying from fence-post to fence-postand down to the tall grass, gave utterancecontinually to piteous cries of distress, morelike a whistle or cherr than a bird was a weird ventriloquistic sound impos-sible to describe,— ** The fresh, free cry of a prairie uncaged call of an upland plover. They were evidently only a day old, andthe empty nest with broken shells was hiddenon the level ground just inside the edge of aclover-field. It was even a less pretentiousnest than the sandpipers, being only a slightdepression in the earth with small attemptat lining or concealment. The five egg-shells were bufFy white, spotted with choco-late and quite pointed. The nest was stillwarm, as if they had not been long away,and I wondered whether they would goback to sleep that night in the old nur-sery. However, this was some twelve milesfrom our camping-place, so we were not ableto see. 149 NESTLINGS OF FOREST AND MARSH. A spry little teeter It is strange how early ground-birds leavethe nest. I doubt if plover, quail, partridge,snipe, or any of their kin remain in the nur-sery more than two or three hours, or longer thanjust enoughfor the down todry out well. Anest of ruffledgrouse that con-tained nine eggsat eight a. empty withbroken shells scattered about at noon,and one little fellow was caught runningoff with the egg-shell still on his is young America indeed, and suchenterprise deserves more than a passingnotice. There were said to be no quail in theneighborhood, but we were fortunate enoughto run across a family of them in a fencecorner on the hillside. On one side was afield of lush red clover, its full pink blos-soms reflecting the glory of the sunset sky ;150 SANDPIPERS, QUAIL, AND KILDEER for, alas ! this also was late in the afternoon,too late for good work with the mother quail disappeared instantly
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
