Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The largest and commonest ring-plover of North America, Ægialites vociferus: so called in imitation of its shrill two-syllabled note. The killdee is from 9 to 10 inches long, and 20 in extent of wings. The bill is black; the eye is black with a bright ring around it; the legs are pale; the upper parts are grayish-brown with a bronzed olive tint, changing to orange-brown on the rump; the under parts are pure white, with two black collars encircling the neck; the front and line over the eye are white, with a black stripe over this; and the tail-feathers are peculiarly variegated with black, white, and the bright color of the rump. It occurs almost everywhere in North America is migratory, not gregarious, very noisy, and restless. It nests on the ground, in grass or shingle, and lays four pyriform eggs, 1½ inches long and
inches broad, of a drab color heavily blotched with blackish brown.
Wiktionary
- n. Alternative form of killdeer.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.) A small American plover (Charadrius vociferus, formerly Ægialitis vocifera) of inland waters and fields having a distinctive cry. The adult has two black bands around the neck and upper breast, but the young chick has only the breast band. It ranges from Canada to Mexico and the West Indies.
Examples
“There in the dim, sweet woods, with the smoke curling up into the leafy masses above, the sunlight just dropping upon the lake, the killdee, the robin, and the blue jay crying in the still, cool morning air.”
“It is probable that plover killdee should be substituted in the foregoing lists of clans, for the name clearly refers to the killdee's habit of running along the clean sand at the water's edge.”
“He's pine-blank as happy now as a killdee by a mill-race.”
“It would be better than golf -- to sit with him on the store porch on a sunny day listening to the mill rumbling by the creek and the killdee whistling in the meadow, to watch the shadows crawl along the mountains, and now and then to hear Bill Hansen say something.”
“Below us a stone mill grumbled over its unending task, and from the meadows came the blithe call of the killdee.”
“Let the wailing of the killdee be the only sound we hear:”
“He ran along before the children as nimbly as a killdee, talking and laughing all the time.”
“The noise of the talking and laughing and the formless progress of the mob hushed the nearer night voices of the fields and woods; but from a distance the shuddering cry of a screech-owl could be heard; and the melancholy call of a killdee in a pasture beside the creek.”
“But when I at's him ag'in, to lock legs or kick ankles, dar he's 'way off yander, a-tippin' it on his toes, like a killdee.”
“That's all right," he continued, as the son closed in on me: "I kin handle the little killdee by myself ....”
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