killdeer

plural killdeers · alternative kildeer · alternative killdee · alternative kill-deer

1. A North American plover (Charadrius vociferus) with a distinctive cry and territorial behavior that includes feigning injury to attract predators and spare the young in the nest.

   A kill-deer, flying so low as to dip its wings, ever and anon alighted on the margin, its stilt-like legs half submerged as it ran hither and thither, now and then bending to dig in the sand with its long slender bill.

   1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska, published 2005, page 50