“Killdee, killdee.”
The pleasantest sight to me
Is a little brown bird with a curious word;
A queer little word that to-day I have heard
For the very first time this spring, you see,
And that queer little word is “Killdee, killdee.”
That curious word is “Killdee.”
“Killdee, killdee.”
It is cheery and clear as can be.
And there’s snow in the gully not melted away,
And ice in the river; I saw it to-day.
Yet there he goes dipping and skimming along
And singing so blithely his queer little song:
“’Tis spring. Killdee, Killdee.”
—Mary Morrison.
THE NORTHERN PHALAROPE.
(_Phalaropus lobatus._)
The Northern Phalarope has a wide range, extending throughout the
northern portion of the Northern Hemisphere and in winter reaching the
tropics. It breeds only in Arctic latitudes. It is a bird of the ocean,
and seldom is observed inland except as a rare migrant early in May or
in October. Then it “frequents slow streams or marshy pools.”
This Phalarope belongs to the shore birds and to a family that contains
but three known species. Two of these are sea birds. The other, Wilson’s
phalarope, is an inhabitant of the interior of North America. Their feet
are webbed, and usually the two marine forms, or sea snipe, as they are
sometimes called, migrate in flocks far from land. Mr. Chapman says: “I
have seen it in great numbers about one hundred miles off Barnegat, New
Jersey, in May. For several hours the steamer passed through flocks,
which were swimming on the ocean. They arose in a body at our approach,
and in close rank whirled away to the right or left in search of new
feeding grounds.”
It is not an exaggeration to say that it is one of the most beautiful of
our aquatic birds. All its motions are graceful. It possesses a quiet
dignity and elegance while swimming in search of food, which it
frequently obtains by thrusting its bill into the water. In this manner
it obtains a large number of marine animals and flies that may be on the
surface of the water. When on the shore it may be seen wading and
swimming in ponds near the coast.
Dr. Coues wrote in an interesting manner of this bird. He said that the
Northern Phalarope is “a curious compound of a wader and swimmer. Take
one of our common little sandpipers, fit it for sea by making oars of
its feet, and launch it upon the great deep, you have a Northern
Phalarope. You may see a flotilla of these little animated cockle-boats
riding lightly on the waves anywhere off the coast of New England.”
Its habits at the mating season are most interesting, and no words can
better describe them than those of Mr. E. W. Nelson: “As the season
comes on when the flames of love mount high, the dull-colored male moves
about the pool, apparently heedless of the surrounding fair ones. Such
stoical indifference usually appears too much for the feelings of some
of the fair ones to bear. A female coyly glides close to him and bows
her head in pretty submissiveness, but he turns away, pecks at a bit of
food and moves off; she follows and he quickens his speed, but in vain;
he is her choice, and she proudly arches her neck and in mazy circles
passes and repasses close before the harassed bachelor. He turns his
breast first to one side, then to the other, as though to escape, but
there is his gentle wooer ever pressing her suit before him. Frequently
he takes flight to another part of the pool, all to no purpose. If with
affected indifference he tries to feed she swims along side by side,
almost touching him, and at intervals rises on wing above him and,
poised a foot or two over his back, makes a half dozen quick, sharp
wing-strokes, producing a series of sharp, whistling noises in rapid
succession. In the course of time it is said that water will wear the
hardest rock, and it is certain that time and importunity have their
full effect upon the male of this Phalarope, and soon all are
comfortably married, while mater familias no longer needs to use her
seductive ways and charming blandishments to draw his notice.”
Then after the four dark and heavily marked eggs are laid the “captive
male is introduced to new duties, and spends half his time on the eggs,
while the female keeps about the pool close by.”
[Illustration: NORTHERN PHALAROPE.
(Phalaropus lobatus.)
¾ Life-size.
FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.]
These birds, which possess such dainty elegance in all their motions, do
not exhibit a corresponding degree of taste in home building. Their
nests, at best, consist of only a few blades of grass and fragments of
moss laid loosely together. Often the eggs are laid in some convenient
hollow, with no bedding whatever except that which happened to lodge
there.
These are a few of the facts in the life history of this bird, which
starts in its career as a little ball of buff and brown and later in
life “glides hither and thither on the water, apparently drifted by its
fancy, and skims about the pool like an autumn leaf wafted before the
playful zephyrs on some embosomed lakelet in the forest.”