Plover

pluv'er, a family of birds allied to the snipe. The plover has a shorter bill and is less strictly a shore bird. There are a hundred species, of which eight are North American. The noisy, restless killdeer, so called from its shrill cry of kill dee, kill dee, is a familiar bird in the vicinity of ponds. It may be known by a white and a black ring around its neck and a white band and a black band across its breast. The semi-palmated plover or ringneck frequents salt beaches. Chapman says:

At noonday, when the heat waves are dancing over the marshes and even the twittering oxeyes are silent, one may hear the cool, pure notes of this little plover. Even a whistled imitation of them takes me to the beaches.

The upland plover is about twelve inches in length. It lives in pastures or on dry prairies, and may be recognized by a trait of holding or stretching its long wings straight up above the back when it lights, "as if to get the wrinkles out before gently folding them." See Snipe; Sandpiper