Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/851

 KILDARE was successively employed as an apprentice, clerk, merchant, and manufacturer. Having secured a competence, he became a priest in the Protestant Episcopal church, declined sev- eral advantageous calls to ijacant parishes, and, for the purpose of promoting western emigra- tion, in 1801-'2 organized the Scioto company, under whose auspices a colony of about 100 persons, under his lead, was in 1803 established in what is now the township of Worthington in Ohio. He retired from the ministry in 1804, and was appointed a civil magistrate, an officer of militia on the N. W. frontier, and surveyor of a large portion of the public lands. In 1812 he was one of the commissioners to settle the boundary between the public lands and the great Virginia reservation, and also commissioned as a colonel in the frontier regi- ment; and in 1813 he entered congress, of which he remained a member till 1817. He was for 35 years president of the board of trustees of Worthington college. k Il,l> lltl, an inland county of Ireland, in the province of Leinster, bordering on Meath, Dub- lin, Wicklow, Carlow, Queen's, and King's coun- ties; area, 654 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 84,198. The surface is flat or undulating, and, with the exception of the bogs, has a fertile clayey soil. Farms are less subdivided in this county than in most others. Kildare has a considerable ex- port of grain and flour by means of the river Barrow and the Royal and Grand canals and their branches. The rivers Liffey and Boyne also traverse a portion of the county, and two railways intersect it. Cotton and woollen fab- rics and paper are manufactured to a limited extent. Near the centre of the county is a plain of 4,858 acres, the property of the gov- ernment, and called the Curragh of Kildare, used for military camps of exercise, and having on it one of the best race courses in the king- dom. The principal towns are Naas, the capi- tal, Athy, and Kildare. KILDEER, an American plover, so called from its notes, which resemble the sounds " kildee, kildee, dee, dee, dee ;" it is the charadrius vo- KILKENNY 831 Klldecr ( JlgialiUs vociferus). ciferus (Linn.) or the genus asgialitis (Boie). The kildeer is about 10 in. long, with an extent of wings of 20, the bill 1 in., and the weight 6 oz. The head is small, the neck short, body rather slender, wings reaching to the end of the long tail, feet long and slender, hind tibia bare con- 466 vol. ix. 53 siderably above the joint, and toe wanting. The bill is black, the edges of the lids bright red, the iris dark brown, and the feet grayish blue ; the head above and upper parts of the body light brown with a greenish tinge ; rump and upper tail coverts rufous; lower parts white ; ring on neck and wide band on breast black ; quills brownish black, with about half their inner webs white; white spots on the shorter primaries, and the secondaries edged with the same ; the four middle tail feathers white tipped, with a wide snbterminal black band, and the lateral ones widely tipped with white ; the whole upper plumage is sometimes edged with rufous. The bird is common throughout North America, most abundant in- land, going to the south in winter, and to the islands of the Atlantic and Pacific. It is very wary, the small flocks when feeding posting a sentinel to warn them of danger ; when alarm- ed it is very noisy, uttering rapidly the notes which have given it its name. Its chief resorts are newly ploughed fields, the banks of clear rivers, and elevated worn-out grounds, where it feeds on worms, grasshoppers, beetles, small crustaceans, and snails ; toward winter it. ap- proaches the seashore, and at the south is fond of the sugar, cotton, and rice fields, and of marshes, mud flats, and oyster beds. The flight is strong and rapid, whether at high or low elevations, and the speed in running is such as to have become proverbial ; the large eyes indicate its habit of feeding by night as well as by day. It breeds in the southern states about the beginning of April, and a month later in the middle states ; the nest is either a hollow in the earth or is made of grass on the ground; the eggs, usually four, are 1% by 1J in., cream-colored with irregular purplish brown and black blotches ; the pa- rents adopt various devices to divert attention from their nest. The flesh, unless of the young in early autumn, is indifferent, though it is eaten at all seasons of the year. KILIMANJARO (properly Kilima Njaro, snow mountain), the highest known mountain in Africa, situated in the Jagga country, on the border of Zanguebar, about 180 m. from the coast, in lat. 3 40' S., Ion. 36 E. It is crowned with perpetual snow, and its summit is 20,065 ft. above the level of the sea. It was discov- ered in 1848 by Rebmann. KILKENNY. I. An inland county of Ire- land, in the province of Leinster, bordering on Queen's, Carlow, Wexford, Waterford, and Tipperary counties ; area, 796 sq. m. ; pop. in 1871, 109,302. The surface is generally level, but diversified with some hills, which rise to the altitude of 1,000 ft. The county is inter- sected by the river Nore, and bounded respec- tively E. and S. by the rivers Barrow and Suir. The soil is mostly a light fertile loam. Anthra- cite coal of inferior quality abounds. Fine black marble is quarried near the town of Kil- kenny. Various stone piles of the pagan era, cromlechs, and cairns are found in this county,