I have often wondered whether birds, like persons, do not grow to love
some one locality better than all others, and if they do not return
there year after year to make it their home. My belief is that they do.
I have observed many cases that tend to confirm my views, and give a
couple of them below.
One spring, six years ago, while my grandmother and I were out milking
in the corral one evening, a pair of killdeer flew over our heads
and, after circling around a few times, settled near us. We noticed
then that the male had only one leg, the other being broken off near
the knee. They skipped around in the way they have, stopping now and
then to pick up a worm. All that summer they came nearly every night
to catch the bugs and worms, which they often carried to the little
fledglings in their nest by the lake.
Well, time passed on. Autumn came and went, and with it the killdeer
and their young. The long winter wore away; then, on a bright spring
morning, in precisely the same manner as before, our two friends, the
killdeer, darted down in the corral again and went to feeding. The old
fellow hopped about on his one leg as of yore, and seemed glad to see
us again.
The next year it was the same way. They arrived at about the same time
as on the two previous seasons, and hatched out their young as usual,
down by the lake. They were quite tame by this time, and we began to
regard them as pets.
The next spring, however, they failed to come, and you may be sure that
we missed their clear, cheerful cries. We could not, of course, tell
the cause of their non-appearance. One or both of them may have been
killed or they may have died, as birds are liable to the same fate as
we are; but one thing is certain, this pair came back here for three
seasons.
Another summer, while passing near the river, a humming bird flew out
of the bushes almost under my feet, and from its actions I felt certain
it had a nest there. And sure enough, on stooping down and parting the
leaves I found her nest, built on a single rose stem, projecting over
the water. Two tiny birds reposed on their soft bed. Below this nest,
on the same stem, and but a few inches apart, were two old ones. They
were somewhat ragged, as was natural, from the war of the elements that
had raged during one and two years. So, these humming birds must have
made this their home for several summers.