Chapter C: J. Maynard (1896) found them breeding in Florida, during the first (1)

week in May, “among the low scrub, just back of the beach ridge. The nests were placed in the midst of low bushes and were quite difficult to find.” Arthur T. Wayne (1910) “found two nests on the top of a high sand hill, in wild oats (_Zizania miliacea_)” and E. A. Samuels (1883) says that it “has been known to breed in a rye field 20 miles from the seashore.”

Willets which I have found breeding on the coasts of Louisiana and Texas have proved to be referable to the eastern form. On Dressing Point Island in Matagorda Bay, Tex., we found a few pairs breeding, with heavily incubated eggs, on May 8, 1923. This is a large, flat, grassy island on which we found black-crowned night herons and a few pairs of Ward herons nesting on the ground. The willets’ nests were well concealed under thick tufts of luxuriant grass.

Willets on their breeding grounds are among the noisiest and most demonstrative of birds. No sooner does one land on an island where they are breeding than an outcry is started and one after another the birds arise and fly out to meet the intruder, until the whole colony is in a state of great excitement. Regardless of their own safety they circle about at short range, pouring out a steady stream of angry invectives in a great variety of loud, ringing notes. And this performance is kept up as long as the intruder is anywhere near their nests. They often alight on bushes, trees, posts, or even buildings and keep up a constant scolding.

_Eggs._--The willet regularly lays four eggs; as many as six, and even seven, have been found in a nest, but these large numbers are probably the product of two females. The eggs vary in shape from ovate to ovate pyriform and they have only a slight gloss. The ground colors vary from “deep olive buff” to “olive buff,” rarely “yellowish glaucous,” in greenish types, and from “avellaneous” to “tilleul bluff,” rarely pale “Isabella color,” in the buffy or brownish types; and there are numerous intermediate shades between these extremes. They are generally boldly and irregularly marked with both large and small spots and blotches, but sometimes they are quite evenly covered with small spots; rarely they are blotched around the large end only. The markings are mostly in dark browns, “burnt umber,” “bister,” “sepia” and “clove brown,” but sometimes they are in lighter, olive browns. The underlying markings are in various shades of “brownish drab” or “drab gray.” The measurements of 56 eggs average 52.5 by 38 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =60.5= by 38, 53.5 by =40=, =49= by 37, and 50 by =36= millimeters.

_Young._--The period of incubation seems to be unknown. Both sexes share in the care of the young, which run soon after hatching. Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says:

The young are hatched by May 29, and the parents sometimes
remove them between the thighs (as the woodcock is also
known to do) to a place of safety, fully a quarter of a
mile away. I observed this trait on May 29, 1899. I found
a nest in an oat field, which contained one young bird
just hatched and three eggs on the point of hatching. I
remained near the place until the eggs were hatched, and
the willets were greatly alarmed all the time. Presently I
saw one of the old birds remove a young one and fly with it
across three creeks and marsh land to an island a quarter
of a mile away. This was repeated until all the young were
removed.

_Plumages._--The downy young willet is rather prettily and quite distinctively marked. There is a distinct loral stripe of brownish black, a post ocular stripe and a median frontal stripe of “warm sepia.” The chin and throat are white and the rest of the head is pale buff, mixed with grayish white, heavily mottled on the crown with “warm sepia.” The down of the hind neck and upper back is basally sepia with light buff tips. The rest of the upper parts are variegated with pale buff, grayish white and “warm sepia”; but in the center of the back is a well marked pattern of four broad stripes of “warm sepia” and three of light buff, converging on the rump and between the wings. The under parts are buffy white.

The young bird begins to acquire its Juvenal plumage before it is half grown, beginning with the scapulars, back and wings; then comes the plumage of the breast and crown, and lastly the neck, rump and tail. In the full juvenal plumage, in July, the feathers of the crown, back, scapulars and wing coverts are “sepia”; those of the crown are tipped, those of the back and scapulars are broadly edged or notched and those of the wing coverts are still more broadly edged with “pale pinkish buff”; the greater coverts are irregularly barred, variegated or sprinkled with sepia; the rest of the wing is as in the adult; the rump is “hair brown,” narrowly tipped with buffy white; the upper tail coverts are white, indistinctly barred with dusky near the tips; the central tail feathers are barred with “sepia” and “drab,” tinged with “pinkish buff,” these markings decreasing laterally; the chin, upper throat and belly are white; the lower throat, chest, and flanks are suffused with “pale pinkish buff,” streaked on the throat and chest and barred on the flanks with “sepia.” These colors soon fade until the edgings become nearly white.

A partial molt takes place mainly in September, involving the body plumage, the tail and some of the wing coverts; this produces the first winter plumage, which can be distinguished from the adult only by the retained juvenal wing coverts. This plumage is worn through the winter and I think, in most cases, through the first spring. At the next complete molt, the first postnuptial, the adult winter plumage is acquired.

Adults have a nearly complete prenuptial molt in March, April, and May, involving everything but the flight feathers of the wings, which are apparently molted later in the fall or early in the winter. I have not actually seen these feathers molting. The lighter portions of the spring plumage wear away during the breeding season, giving the birds a very black appearance above. The complete postnuptial molt begins with the body plumage in August, or even July, and by September the plain “smoke gray” winter plumage is assumed.

_Food._--The favorite feeding grounds of the eastern willet are on the broad mud flats or sand flats in the bayous, bays, and estuaries on the coast; it also feeds along the muddy banks of creeks and ditches, or about the pond holes and splashes on the salt marshes. If disturbed at its feeding it rises with a loud outcry, alarming all the birds within hearing. W. J. Erichsen (1921) has noted that, although they feed at all hours of the day, the nesting birds are seldom found on their nests during the early morning hours, when there seems to be a concerted movement from the breeding grounds to their feeding places. I am inclined to think, however, that they are governed more by the tides than by the hours, as most of their feeding grounds are covered at high tide.

Their food consists of aquatic insects, marine worms, small crabs, fiddlers, small mollusks, fish fry, and small fish. Some vegetable matter is eaten, such as grasses, tender roots, seeds, and even cultivated rice.

_Behavior._--The flight of the willet is said to be swift, but it has always seemed to me to be rather slow and heavy, when compared with the flight of other shore birds, though perhaps it results in better speed than it appears to do. The willet is a heavy-bodied bird and its flight is strong, direct, and protracted; it seems to fly more like a duck than the other shore birds. Occasionally it sets its wings and scales downward; and on its breeding grounds I have seen it hover on quivering wings like a poised falcon. I have not found the willet particularly shy, as compared with other large waders, though it has the reputation of being very wary. When in large flocks in open situations, it is useless to attempt to approach it; but I have often walked up to within gunshot range of single birds and have frequently had small flocks fly within range while I was standing in plain sight. On its breeding grounds it is utterly fearless and bold.

Willets often perch on bushes, trees, fences, posts, rocks, or buildings, where they can watch and scold at the intruder. Mr. Maynard (1896) has seen them “perching on the limbs of pine trees, 40 or 50 feet from the ground, and sometimes, a dozen birds would sit side by side on a single branch, presenting a novel appearance.” Being partially webfooted, they can swim fairly well and probably alight on the water to rest when migrating at sea. On the ground they are rather sluggish, standing still much of the time, with heads drawn down. They indulge in the bobbing or nodding motions less frequently and more moderately than the yellowlegs do. Francis H. Allen has noted that “in bobbing, the head is drawn back and the tail lowered at the same time, the whole body turning as on a pivot, then the head is brought forward and the tail raised to its natural level.”

_Voice._--On its breeding grounds the willet is a very noisy bird, pouring out a great variety of notes. Its usual note is a loud, vehement _wek_, _wek_, _wek_ or _kerwek_, _kerwek_, _kerwek_, varied to _piuk_, _piuk_, _piuk_. Occasionally the whistling note, _pill_, _will_, _will_ or _pill-o-will-o-willet_, is heard, suggesting the note of the yellowlegs in quality, accent, and manner of delivery. Less frequently another note is heard, which sounds like _beat it_, _beat it_. John T. Nichols adds in his notes:

At this season one hears several variations of the _kiyuk_
flight note, one of these, _ki-yi-yuk_ suggesting the
loudest, most ringing call of the greater yellowlegs.
A loud, high-pitched _kree-uk_, which is infrequent,
suggests a note of the lesser yellowlegs. Similarly
_kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk_ in tern-like series from two mating
birds is probably homologous with the alighting and
flushing notes of the yellowlegs. The ordinary loud flight
note of the transient willet is a far-reaching, gull-like
_kiyuk_, repeated at intervals. A less frequent call
resembles the _wheu wheu wheu_ of the greater yellowlegs,
but is much lower pitched, not loud. It is likely to be
heard from a bird lingering at a given locality.

_Enemies._--Man has been the chief enemy of the willet and the main cause of the restriction of its breeding areas. When it bred abundantly in Nova Scotia and Virginia its eggs were collected in large numbers as a legitimate article of food. And the birds were shot all through the breeding season. Being a large, fat bird, it helped to fill the game bag rapidly and so was a favorite with sportsmen or market gunners. It does not come readily to decoys, but it can easily be attracted by a skillful imitation of its notes, and flocks often fly by within range of the gunner’s blind. Mr. Nichols tells me that it will decoy well to the whistled imitation of the black-bellied plover’s note. As it is no longer on the game-bird list, it will probably be given a chance to increase.

Some colonies have been washed out by high tides and their natural enemies, predatory animals and birds, have done considerable damage. P. B. Philipp (1910), who visited Raccoon Key, S. C., says:

The birds had been badly persecuted by fish crows and
minks; broken and sucked eggs were found everywhere, and
two nests were found in which the skeleton of the bird was
lying on sucked eggs, the work of minks.

_Field marks._--The willet, while standing on the ground, is a nondescript looking bird, almost devoid of characteristic markings, especially in the immature and winter plumages. It is about the size of the greater yellowlegs, but more heavily built, with shorter and heavier, bluish-gray legs, shorter neck, and decidedly heavier bill. Its drab colors match well into a background of sand or mud. But when it lifts its black and white wings or when flying, no bird is more easily recognized, for its color pattern is unique and conspicuous; the black wings, with their broad white band extending across the base of the tail, advertise the willet as far as they can be seen. Its notes, described above, are also quite characteristic.

_Fall._--I imagine that the willets, which breed in Nova Scotia, migrate at sea to the West Indies, mainly in August. I have never seen an adult willet on the New England coast in the fall, and practically all that I have shot are referable to the western form, but it is not easy to recognize the two forms in immature plumage. Willets of some form, in immature plumage, are quite common at times in southern New England and on Long Island from the middle of July to the middle of September. The main flight comes in August. I suspect that these are practically all young western willets.

_Winter._--The eastern willet spends the winter on the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America, in the Bahamas and West Indies, and on the more northern coasts of South America. It is therefore resident or present the year round in much of its breeding range. It is rather rare as far north as South Carolina, but abundant in Florida and on the Gulf coasts, where the resident birds are reinforced by eastern and western willets from the North. In Florida they are occasionally seen about the ponds on the prairies or in the pine woods, but their favorite resorts are the broad mud flats in the estuaries and bayous or in the coastal marshes. In such places we often saw them in large flocks by themselves, where they were very shy and utterly unapproachable. Toward the end of March their numbers began to decrease, as the birds left for their breeding grounds.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--The Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America to northern South America; accidental in Kansas, Bermuda, and Europe.

_Breeding range._--The breeding range of the willet extends north to Texas (Corpus Christi, Houston, and Galveston); Louisiana (Calcasieu, New Orleans, and Breton Island); Alabama (Grand Batture Island and Bayou Labatre); and Nova Scotia (Digby, Halifax, and Sable Island). East to Nova Scotia (Sable Island and Barrington); Massachusetts (formerly New Bedford and Nantucket); Connecticut (Madison and West Haven); New Jersey (Barnegat Inlet, Bridgeton, Beasleys Point, Sea Isle City, and Cape May); Maryland (Berlin); Virginia (Chincoteague, Hog Island, Cobb Island, and Norfolk); North Carolina (Atlantic and Beaufort); South Carolina (Waverly Mills, Sullivans Island, and Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah, Darien, and St. Simons Island); eastern Florida (Fernandina, Anastasia Island, New Smyrna, Turtle Mount, Mosquito Lagoon, Cape Canaveral, and Lake Worth); and the Bahama Islands (Great Bahama, Abaco, and Inagua). South to the Bahama Islands (Inagua and Andros); the West Indies (Grand Cayman); western Florida (Indian Key and St. Marks); and Texas (Brownsville). West to Texas (Brownsville and Corpus Christi).

The breeding range above outlined has become greatly restricted, and while it is still reported as breeding in Nova Scotia, it is of rare occurrence at this season on the coasts of the Northern and Middle Atlantic States. Willets have been reported as nesting on Barbuda, West Indies, but the record is probably based upon non-breeding individuals which also have been noted in Cuba (Guantanamo).

_Winter range._--The winter range extends north to Texas (Brownsville); Louisiana (State Game Preserve and Breton Island); Alabama (Coffee Island); and probably rarely Virginia (Cobb Island). East to rarely Virginia (Cobb Island); rarely North Carolina (Fort Macon); South Carolina (Waverly Mills and Frogmore); Georgia (Savannah and Darien); Florida (Fernandina, Mosquito Inlet, Indian River, Sebastian, and Royal Palm Hammock); the Bahama Islands (Grassy Creek and Caicos); Cuba; probably Haiti; Porto Rico (Boqueron and Anegada Island); the Lesser Antilles (Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad); British Guiana; and Brazil (Catejuba Island). South to Brazil (Catejuba Island and Guapore River). West to Brazil (Guapore River); northeastern Colombia (Cartagena); probably Panama (Rio Juan Diaz); Yucatan (Merida and Cozumel Island); Tamaulipas (Matamoros); and Texas (Brownsville).

_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: New Jersey, Cape May, March 22, Long Beach, April 6, and Caldwell, April 7; Rhode Island, Rock Island, April 27; Massachusetts, Nantucket, May 2, Dennis, May 5, and Falmouth, May 11; and Nova Scotia, Yarmouth, April 22, and Wolfville, April 29.

Late dates of spring departure are: Mexico, Tampico, April 11; and Cuba, Trinidad, April 14, Siguanea, May 2, and Guantanamo, May 8.

_Fall migration._--Information is lacking of the early arrival of the willet on the southern part of its winter range, but among late dates of fall departure are: Maine, Sagadahoc County, October 25; Massachusetts, Plymouth, October 4; Connecticut, Meriden, October 15; New Jersey, Salem County, October 8, and Caldwell, October 17; and Maryland, near Baltimore, about November 1.

_Casual records._--The willet has been taken once in Kansas (near Hamilton, September 8, 1912); and one was obtained in Bermuda on July 3, 1848. It also has been reported on a few occasions from Europe, in all cases without complete data: France (Abbeville, also two in the Paris market); Dalmatia; and Sweden.

_Egg dates._--Nova Scotia: 4 records, June 5 to 19. Virginia: 26 records, May 19 to June 16; 13 records, May 27 to June 8. South Carolina and Georgia: 53 records, March 10 to July 4; 27 records, May 9 to 22. Texas: 28 records, April 3 to June 10; 14 records, April 23 to May 24.

CATOPTROPHORUS SEMIPALMATUS INORNATUS (Brewster)

WESTERN WILLET

HABITS

When William Brewster (1887) described and named the western willet he characterized it as:

Differing from _S. semipalmata_ in being larger, with a
longer, slenderer bill; the dark markings above fewer,
finer, and fainter, on a much paler (grayish-drab ground);
those beneath duller, more confused or broken, and bordered
by pinkish salmon, which often spreads over or suffuses
the entire underparts, excepting the abdomen. Middle tail
feathers either quite immaculate or very faintly barred.

It is a bird of the western interior; its main breeding grounds are in the Great Plains regions of the Northern States, west of the Mississippi River, and the central Provinces of Canada. Nearly all recent writers have recorded it as breeding on the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, an oft-repeated error. All the breeding birds that I have shot on the coasts of these two States, in May and June, were clearly referable to the eastern form. And I have been unable to find any specimens of _inornata_ in collections that could be classed as breeding birds from these States. If the western willet breeds in Texas at all it must be on the plains or prairies of the interior. But it seems hardly likely that it would have a breeding range so widely separated from the northern range as outlined below. The eastern willet is strictly a coastwise bird and breeds, or did formerly, all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. On the other hand, the western willet is just as strictly a bird of the inland prairies and plains during the breeding season.

_Spring._--The main migration route seems to be northward through the Mississippi Valley, chiefly in April; most of the birds are on their breeding grounds by the first of May or earlier and are laying eggs before the end of that month. Birds which winter in South Carolina and Florida probably join this route by an overland flight. There is a northward migration through the interior valleys of California to breeding grounds west of the Rocky Mountains, and probably some birds cross these mountains to the interior plains.

_Nesting._--We found western willets very common about the lakes in the prairie regions of North Dakota and Saskatchewan; but owing to their habit of flying a long distance to meet the intruder and making a great fuss everywhere but near their nests, we succeeded in finding only one nest. This was on the higher portion of the open prairie, a long way from any water, near Big Stick Lake, Saskatchewan. The nest was a hollow in the ground, measuring 7 by 6 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep, lined with grasses and dry weeds. It was in plain sight in short grass; a few scattered dead weeds were standing around it, but no long grass. It contained three fresh eggs on June 14, 1906. Ernest T. Seton (Thompson, 1890) found a nest in Manitoba “which was placed in a slight hollow, shaded on one side by the skull of a buffalo and on the other by a tuft of grass,” on an alkali plain.

The western willet breeds commonly in Boxelder County, Utah. Three sets of eggs in my collection, taken there on May 7, 13, and 16, 1916, by the Treganzas, came from nests described as slight depressions in short marsh grass; one was near an alkali flat, one near a water runway, and one on a partially grass-grown dike.

This bird is a rare, or very local, breeder in California. J. Van Denburgh (1919) reports five nests found on “a partially flooded mountain meadow” in Lassen County on June 1 and 6, 1918. “The nests were made of pieces of weeds rather carelessly built up on the mud. Some were found where the water was a few inches deep and some where the mud was drying.”

_Eggs._--The eggs of the western willet are indistinguishable from those of the eastern bird. There is a slight average difference in length, but the measurements widely overlap. The measurements of 56 eggs average 54.1 by 37.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =58.1= by 39.4, =50.5= by =39.7=, and 54.9 by =35= millimeters.

_Plumages._--The sequence of plumages and molts is the same for both races, but juvenal western birds are somewhat paler than eastern birds, and they have less barring on the tail feathers or none at all.

_Fall._--From its breeding grounds in the interior the western willet migrates in three main directions to the seacoasts, almost due east to the Atlantic coast of New York and New England, southeast and south to the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts and southwest to the California coast. Probably the birds which breed east of the Rocky Mountains take the easterly and southerly routes and those which breed west of these mountains migrate to California. Most of the willets which we get in Massachusetts in August are immature western willets; I have never seen an adult. These young birds apparently come from the Great Lakes region, where they have been recorded in Illinois and Ohio and as far north as Toronto, Ontario. John T. Nichols says in his notes:

Along the bays and marshes of the south shore of Long
Island the willet is a regular late-summer migrant in
small numbers varying from year to year. Southbound shore
birds of other species are now following this coast to the
westward, but a large majority of the willet are moving in
the opposite direction; that is, from west to east. Its
maximum flight seems to come in the beginning of August,
and a peak of abundance for the species was reached
in 1923. At Mastic on August 4, 1923, 14 willet were
counted passing west to east in 3 flocks during 2½ hours’
observation.

I have examined a number of specimens of these Long Island
fall-migration willet, which have all been in the grey
unmarked plumage of birds of the year (which I would not
undertake to distinguish from adult fresh winter plumage),
and remarkably uniform in size. Their bills varied scarcely
at all in dimensions (slightly over 2¼ inches), being
decidedly too long for the short-billed Virginia breeding
bird, but much too short for the long-billed bird from
the Dakotas (unless its young of the year are uniformly
short-billed).

_Winter._--Western willets mingle in winter with their eastern relatives on the South Atlantic and Gulf coast from Florida to Texas; they are especially abundant in Texas. They also winter abundantly from the coast of California southward. Bradford Torrey (1913) saw them, mixed with marbled godwits, near San Diego, in such numbers that he--

mistook them at first for a border of some kind of
herbiage. Thousands there must have been; and when they
rose at my approach they made something like a cloud;
gray birds and brown birds so contrasted in color as to be
discriminated beyond risk of error, even when too far away
for the staring white wing patches of the willets to be
longer discernible.

Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1916) has well described their habits, as beach birds at this season, as follows:

In the flocks of brown godwits the few gray willets looked
small. They fed in the same way as the godwits, though
their bills were shorter and they could not probe so deep,
but they ran their bills ahead of them through the wet
sand, probed as far as they could reach, and then trotted
back before the oncoming waves. A thoughtless one sat down
just at the edge of the water line one day, its back toning
in with the sand, its long legs stretched out before it;
but soon after it was comfortably settled up came the foam
and it had to bend forward on its tarsus, raise itself, and
flee up the beach. I often saw one resting, standing on
one leg, or sitting at ease with white rump showing. When
stretching the black of the wings showed effectively as it
does both when the birds fly up and when they alight with
wings raised over the back. _Willet_, _willet_, they often
called as they went.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--United States and southern Canada (casually Alaska), south to northern South America.

_Breeding range._--North to Oregon (Fort Klamath and Camp Harney); Montana (Bozeman); Alberta (probably Edmonton and Buffalo Lake); Saskatchewan (probably Quill Lake and Indian Head); Manitoba (Moose Mountain and Turtle Mountains); North Dakota (Cando and Larimore); Minnesota (Herman and Madison); and probably formerly Illinois (Belvidere and Glen Ellyn). East to probably formerly Illinois (Glen Ellyn). South to probably formerly Illinois (Glen Ellyn); Iowa (probably Newton and formerly Boone); Nebraska (Long Pine, Kennedy, Garden County, and Morrill County); Wyoming (probably Big Piney); Utah (Parleys Park and Salt Lake); and northern California (Beckwith). West to northern California (Beckwith, Grasshopper Valley, Alturas, and Goose Lake); and Oregon (probably Tule Lake and Fort Klamath). Non-breeding birds have been observed in summer as far south as Lower California (Mazatlan and San Quintin Bay); Colorado (Barr); Florida (Pensacola); and Alabama (Petit Bois Island).

_Winter range._--North to California (Humboldt Bay); Texas (Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Rockport, and Refugio County); probably Louisiana; and Florida (Amelia Island). East to Florida (Amelia Island, Dummitts, and the Florida Keys); Tamaulipas (Tampico); probably Honduras (San Pedro); Ecuador (Bay of Santa Elena); and Peru (Tumbez). South to Peru (Tumbez); and the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle). West to the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle and Abingdon); Costa Rica (Lepanto); Guerrero (Acapulco); Nyarit (San Bias); Lower California (San Quintin); and California (San Diego, La Jolla, Morro Bay, San Francisco, Bodega Bay, and Humboldt Bay).

_Spring migration._--Early dates of arrival are: Arkansas, Osceola, March 29; Missouri, Stotesbury, April 8, and St. Louis, April 27; Illinois, Quincy, April 5, and Big Lake, April 29; Iowa, Cedar Rapids, April 2, Emmetsburg, April 21, and Keokuk, April 30; Wisconsin, Heron Lake, April 10, and Waseca, April 10; Minnesota, Lanesboro, April 26; Kansas, Manhattan, April 28, and McPherson, April 30; Nebraska, Niobrara, April 26, Neligh, May 1, and Valentine, May 5; South Dakota, Pitrodie, April 25, and Forestburg, April 28; North Dakota, Charlson, May 1, Jamestown, May 1, and Harrisburg, May 2; Manitoba, Treesbank, April 30; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, April 26, Wiseton, May 2, and Eastend, May 7; Colorado, Durango, April 15, Barr, April 20, and Baca County, April 28; Utah, Great Salt Lake, April 12; Wyoming, Cokeville, April 26, and Cheyenne, April 30; Montana, Lewiston, May 2, and Billings, May 4; Oregon, Narrows, April 15; and Alberta, Flagstaff, April 26, Vagreville, April 28, and Alliance, April 29.

Late dates of spring departure are: Florida, Indian Rocks, May 6; Alabama, Coden, May 17; Tamaulipas, Tampico, April 11; Texas, Brownsville, April 23, and Texas City, May 13; Lower California, Tres Marias Islands, April 8, and Cerros Island, April 18; and Nyarit, San Blas, April 24, and Los Penas Island, May 5.

_Fall migration._--Early dates of arrival in the fall are: Lower California, San Quintin, August 8; Arizona, San Bernardino Ranch, August 13; New Mexico, Carlsbad, August 16, and Capitan Mountains, August 28; Oklahoma, Yarnaby, August 9; Texas, Padre Island, August 20; and Tehuantepec, San Mateo, August 6. Western willets also are of fairly regular occurrence in fall migration on the Atlantic coast, specimens having been collected in Massachusetts, Newburyport, August 5, and Boston, August 8; Connecticut, Stony Creek, August 15, and West Haven, August 26; Rhode Island, Quonochontaug, August 5; and New York, Amityville, August 14, and Hempstead Bay, August 15.

Late dates of fall departure are: Oregon, Yaquina Bay, October 1; Montana, Terry, September 8; Idaho, Rupert, October 20; Nevada, Carson River, October 13; Arizona, San Bernardino Ranch, September 2; Wyoming, Yellowstone Park, September 13; New Mexico, Jicarilla Apache Reservation, September 13; Saskatchewan, Redberry, September 2; North Dakota, Dawson, September 17, and Harrisburg, October 3; Nebraska, Long Pine, September 10, and Lincoln, September 29; Iowa, Cerro Gordo County, September 2, and Keokuk, October 27; Illinois, Chicago, September 30; and Connecticut, West Haven, September 3, and once in October.

_Casual records._--In spite of its regular occurrence on the Atlantic coast, the western willet has been detected only on a few occasions in the interior States east of the Mississippi River. There appear to be several records for Ohio from April 30 (Oberlin) to November 2 (Bay Point); one for Indiana, Millers, August 14, 1897; and one for Michigan, Ann Arbor, May, 1889. One was taken July 20, 1898 at Toronto, Ontario, and four other specimens without data are presumed to be from the same locality (Fleming). Other casual occurrences are: Washington, Seattle, July 23, 1922, and Tacoma, September 6, 1913; British Columbia, Clover Point, August 18, 1898; probably Yukon, Lake Marsh, July 2, 1899; and Alaska, Lynn Canal (Hartlaub).

_Egg dates._--Utah: 32 records, April 5 to May 21; 16 records, May 4 to 14. Saskatchewan and North Dakota: 19 records, May 8 to June 22; 10 records, May 23 to June 7. Washington to California: 9 records, May 8 to June 16.

HETEROSCELUS INCANUS (Gmelin)

WANDERING TATTLER

HABITS

Along the rocky and stony portions of the Pacific coast, and especially on the islands and outlying reefs, this ocean wanderer is a common and well-known bird. Here it is much at home among the surf-swept rocks, drenched in ocean spray and often enveloped in fog; it has no fear of foaming breakers, which it nimbly dodges as it seeks its bits of marine food among the kelp and barnacles on the rocks. It is, at most seasons, essentially a bird of the seashore, but is seldom seen on the sandy or muddy shores. The dark color of its upper plumage matches its surroundings and it is not easily seen among the gloomy rocks, unless its characteristic outline can be seen against the sky or water as it poses on the top of some prominent rock to watch the intruder. If he approach too near, it flies off a short distance with loud, piercing cries and alights on another rock, to bob and teeter, somewhat like our familiar spotted and solitary sandpipers. It is generally solitary and seems to be satisfied with its own society.

It is well named, as it is a famous wanderer. I am tempted to quote Dr. E. W. Nelson’s (1887) well-chosen words on this subject, as follows:

Over the entire coast of the Pacific north of the equator
its presence has been noted by the various naturalists
whose Bohemian tastes have made their lives somewhat akin
to that of this gentle wanderer. Across the broad ocean
it ranges to those bits of paradise dotting the South
Seas, tripping its way daintily on the beaches of the
coral-enclosed islands, their feet laved by the warm waters
of the tropics, and their eyes familiar with the luxuriant
face of nature in its gentlest and most lovely state. The
next season may find them thousands of miles to the north,
under the shadow of the stupendous cliffs and grand but
desolate and repellent scenes of the Aleutian Islands.

_Spring._--Prof. Wells W. Cooke (1912) says that “the spring migration begins in March, bringing the birds to the coast of California by the latter part of the month. The Aleutian Islands are reached the middle of May, and the most northern part of the range by the latter part of the month.” H. W. Henshaw (1902) says that “about April or May the greater number” leave the Hawaiian Islands for the north. “While most go, many remain, the latter being the immature birds and the weaklings. At all events, those that remain retain the immature or winter dress and show not the slightest inclination to breed.” Henry Seebohm (1890) reports a straggler taken on the Bonin Islands on May 11, 1889. D. E. Brown’s notes record one at Forrester Island, Alaska, on May 3, 1917, and several at Grays Harbor, Wash., from May 4 to 21, 1920. He says: “At low tide these birds were found, with flocks of black turnstone, on the rock jetty and at high tide among the drift logs on the upper beach.”

_Nesting._--The nesting habits of the wandering tattler long remained shrouded in mystery. Various observers had seen it on or near its probable breeding grounds in the interior of different parts of Alaska. Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood (1907) collected a very young bird in which “the head and neck were still downy,” near the upper MacMillan River, Yukon, on September 5, 1904, and he reported a pair, which evidently had young, seen by Charles Sheldon, near Mount McKinley, July 28, 1906. Dr. Joseph Grinnell (1910) mentions a “half-grown juvenal” taken by Joseph Dixon on Montague Island, July 28, 1908.

The first nest was found in 1912 and is thus described in a letter from J. M. Jessup to Dr. Charles W. Richmond, accompanied by a specimen of the bird:

The wandering tattler was found nesting on a gravel bar
near a small stream flowing into the Arctic Ocean, the
exact location was about latitude 69° 10´ and longitude
141° west, or about 25 miles south of the Arctic Ocean
near the international boundary between Canada and Alaska.
The nest was first observed by Sir Frederick Lambart of
the Canadian Coast and Geodetic Survey, and was later
identified by myself. Sir Frederick describes the nest
as follows: “The nest was situated in the middle of an
elevated gravel bar open to the sky for fully 50 feet all
around. The nest was just alongside a small rock; there
were no sticks or any form of nest material, it consisted
merely of a semispherical hollow in dry fine and coarse
gravel. Four eggs were in the nest, I should say about the
size of a ptarmigan’s, brownish blue and mottled very much
like a sandpiper’s. The young birds were noted to have come
out of the eggs July 9.”

Ten years later Olaus J. Murie (1924) collected a downy, young wandering tattler on Jennie Creek, a small tributary of Savage River, in the Alaska Range, on June 9, 1922. The following year he completed the record by finding a nest and collecting the first and only set of eggs ever taken. He has given us a very good account of the whole proceeding, from which I quote, as follows:

The following day, July 1, we continued up Savage River 9
miles and made permanent camp. We had been on the lookout
for the birds and I had pointed out to Mr. Buhmann one in
the distance, that he might have an idea for what we were
looking. About noon Mr. Buhmann and my brother were riding
on the wagon, while I walked ahead over the usual gravel
bars, when Mr. Buhmann suddenly called out to me, “Is that
one of your birds?” I turned and saw a wandering tattler
flying away. The bird had been flushed by the horses. We
all three walked back carefully beside the wagon and in a
few moments spied the nest and eggs a short distance to the
rear, not over 6 inches from the wheel track! Mr. Buhmann
picked up one of the eggs, wishing, as he enthusiastically
explained, to be the first one who had ever handled the egg
of a wandering tattler. I explained that the eggs should
not be disturbed until photographed, and it was carefully
replaced in the nest. A series of exposures was made of
the nest and eggs, and we moved away some distance with
our outfit and prepared our lunch. In the meantime the
bird returned and settled on the nest. Several photographs
were then taken of the bird on the eggs, the last one at a
distance of about 10 feet or less. The nest and eggs were
then taken and carried to our camping ground.

All our observations indicate that this nesting site is
characteristic, that the wandering tattler prefers the
gravel bars of mountain streams, as typified by Savage
River. These rivers are rapid and split into numerous
channels, sometimes in an intricate network over the
gravelly valley. This nest was found on Savage River about
5 miles above the mouth of Jennie Creek at an elevation
of about 4,000 feet. It was placed on a gravel bar about
30 feet from the nearest water, and was sunk in a shallow
depression in the gravel. It was well built, unusually
elaborate for a shore bird. It was composed principally of
fine roots carefully woven into a firm structure, including
a number of twigs around the edges. Small bits of twigs and
some dry leaves had been used for lining. It was so compact
that I had no difficulty in picking it up and transporting
it to camp. The diameter of the nest to the edges of the
finely woven body was about 5 inches, but, of course, some
of the twigs extended much farther.

_Eggs._--The eggs taken by Mr. Murie on Savage River, Alaska, July 1, 1923, are now in the United States National Museum and are, so far as I know, the only eggs in existence. In shape they are between pyriform and subpyriform, and they have a slight gloss. The ground color is between “glaucous” and “greenish glaucous,” as in some crow’s eggs. They are spotted and blotched irregularly, rather heavily near the larger end and rather sparsely elsewhere, with dark browns, from “seal brown” or “bone brown” to “burnt umber” or “Verona brown”; there are some elongated splashes and some small, inconspicuous, underlying spot of various shades of “brownish drab.” They measure 43.3 by =32.7=, =44.5= by 31.4, =44.1= by =31.5=, and 43.7 by 32.3 millimeters.

_Young._--The young are able to run about soon after they are hatched and are carefully guarded by both parents. An adult, secured by Mr. Murie with the downy young, proved to be a male. “A whistled _cheep_, imitating a chick, would bring the excited bird within a few feet.” Mr. Jessup writes that the mother bird was much distressed and attempted to lure him from her little one by feigning lameness.

_Plumages._--Mr. Murie (1924) has described the downy young very well, as follows:

These downy young may be described as follows: Under parts
dull white with a faint indication of grayish on upper
breast and lower fore neck; upper parts pale gray, with a
very slight suggestion of buffy on wings, rump, and tail,
more evident in the fresh specimens than in the skin; upper
parts narrowly, irregularly, and indistinctly barred with
blackish, with dull black loral and postocular streaks and
with irregular black spots on hind pileum. In a colored
sketch made from freshly killed bird, tarsus and upper part
of toes appear dull glaucous green; the under surface of
foot olive yellow; bill dull glaucous blue.

Another bird which I have examined, as a dried skin, does not show any buffy tints. A young bird, mainly in juvenal plumage but still downy on the hind neck, chin and forehead, taken on September 5, is from “deep mouse gray” to “dark olive gray” above, with very faint whitish tips; the wing coverts have more prominent white edgings; the chest is “pallid mouse gray,” and the flanks “pale mouse gray,” both more or less indistinctly barred; the rest of the under parts are white. A limited postjuvenal molt of the body plumage occurs in September, producing the first winter plumage; this is much like the adult, except that the juvenal wing coverts, some of the scapulars and the mottled plumage of the breast and flanks are retained. Some young birds apparently assume a plumage which is practically adult at the first prenuptial molt in April.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt from August to January, the wings being molted last, between October and January. I have seen birds in full nuptial plumage from April 13 to September 14 and in full winter plumage as late as April 12. In winter adults the upper parts are slightly lighter gray than in summer, the sides of the head, chest and flanks are still lighter gray and the chin and belly are white. The partial prenuptial molt occurs in April.

_Food._--The usual feeding grounds of the wandering tattler are the rocky shores, where it searches for its food among the kelp-covered rocks at the water’s edge, following the receding waves and nimbly dodging the incoming breakers or making short flights to avoid the surf. If over-taken and drenched it flies to a rock, shakes the water from its plumage and soon resumes its feeding. B. J. Bretherton (1896) says that on Kodiak Island:

This species seemed to habitually frequent the sand or
gravel beaches in preference to rocky localities, and had
regular feeding grounds to which they resorted at certain
stages of the tide, returning regularly each day at the
same time. Their food consists largely of decapods together
with small crabs, marine worms, and minute mollusks.

Its food seems to be mainly insects, but includes small crustaceans, minute mollusks, marine worms, and other small marine animals. The contents of six stomachs, reported on by Preble and McAtee (1923) consisted of “flies (Diptera), 46.1 per cent; caddis flies 30.6 per cent; amphipods, 16 per cent; mollusks, 3.6 per cent; and beetles 1.1 per cent.”

_Behavior._--The movements of wandering tattlers are often suggestive of spotted sandpipers with which they are sometimes associated; they indulge in the same “tip-up” motion of the body, though less frequently; and their flight is very similar, with intermittent strokes of down-curved wings. W. Leon Dawson (1923) says:

When it alights, it sits for some time motionless in a
plover like attitude, with its long bill held horizontally,
invisible, in the dull light of a foggy day, unless,
perchance, outlined against the surf. At other times the
bird will betray its uneasiness by a jetting motion of the
tail.

In his notes on the Farallones, Mr. Dawson (1911) says:

Contrary to earlier statements these tattlers do spend a
considerable portion of their time upon the higher ground.
The tiny bowlder-strewn meadow surrounding my earlier camp
(just east of Franconia Beach) was a favorite resting place
for them, and I am inclined to think the birds spent the
night there, for some were invariably startled upon my
first appearance mornings. Having a common affection for
the tide reefs, wandering tattlers are not infrequently
found in loose association with black turnstones; but
when put to flight they pay no attention whatever to the
fortunes of their chance shipmates nor to others of their
own kind.

Dr. E. W. Nelson (1883) writes:

Their note is a loud, ringing whistle, which seems
specially fitted to the bird and the haunts it occupies,
and as the shrill cry reechoes from the towering cliffs and
ledges at the base of which it feeds its peculiar character
and intonation might lead one to fancy some genie of the
rocks was uttering its cry. When the birds are approached
by boat as they are feeding along the water’s edge they
ascend gradually, with an expression of mild curiosity, and
pass from ledge to ledge until they reach a jutting point
on the face of the cliff or its brow, where they stand in
relief, like beautiful clear-cut statuettes, and do not
utter a sound or move until they are still further alarmed,
when they take flight, uttering at the same moment their
loud note before mentioned.

_Voice._--Doctor Nelson (1880) describes its note as “a loud, ringing _kla_, _kla_, _kla_,” and again he (1887) calls it “a loud, clear, flutelike _tu_, _tu_, _tu_, _tu_.” Mr. Dawson (1923) says it is “a quavering cry, somewhat like the _tew_, _tew_, _tew_ of the greater yellowlegs, but more subdued.” Mr. Murie (1924) writes:

Whenever I approached the home grounds of a wandering
tattler he would fly to meet me and would scold excitedly,
uttering a vigorous _deedle-deedle-deedle-deedle-dee_, with
variations which I failed to record minutely.

_Fall._--Doctor Nelson (1887) says:

They usually reappear on the seacoast about St. Michaels
the last of July or very early in August and remain until
from the 1st to 10th of September. During their presence on
the coast of Norton Sound they show a decided preference
for the most rugged and rock-bound parts of the shore,
rarely or never occurring elsewhere. It is a frequent and
regular summer bird on the rocky parts of the coast to the
vicinity of Bering Straits and occurs on the islands and
Siberian shore of Bering Sea.

William Palmer (1899) says that on the Pribilof Islands:

It is the first species to return in the fall; adult birds,
July 10 and afterwards. Usually in pairs on the surf-swept
rocks, but sometimes seen--usually the brownish, unbarred,
and less wary immature--on open sandy places, and sometimes
with the turnstones on a sandy beach. They are not shy, but
are seldom noticed when perched on the wet rocks, which
harmonize so well with their color. Solitary birds remain
quiet and unseen and will permit one to approach quite
close, frequently startling us as they get up suddenly,
almost under our very feet, and uttering their loud, shrill
cry, flying off to another resting place.

From the Aleutian Islands and the interior of Alaska there is a southward migration to the islands in the Pacific, where it spends the winter, and a more general movement southward along the Pacific coast of North America. D. E. Brown’s notes record it on the coast of Washington from August 10 to September 15. It has been recorded in California early in July, but these were perhaps summer sojourners; the return movement seems to come along between July 15 and August. H. W. Henshaw (1902) says that the return migrants begin to appear in the Hawaiian Islands “about the middle or latter part of August”; he noticed that “the first comers are adults, chiefly males, and still in nuptial dress.”

_Winter._--The Santa Barbara Islands, off the coast of southern California, mark the northern limit of the normal winter range of the wandering tattler, where a few may always be found in winter. Most of the birds go farther south. W. B. Alexander tells me that the wandering tattler occasionally visits Cape York, North Queensland, and there is a specimen, unquestionably of this species, in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy in Cambridge, from Australia.

DISTRIBUTION

_Range._--Western North and South America, eastern Asia, and Oceanica.

_Breeding range._--The nest and eggs of the wandering tattler have actually been found only on one occasion (Savage River, Alaska [Murie]); but the evidence of young birds seems sufficient to establish additional breeding stations in Alaska (Mount McKinley and probably Montague Island); and in Yukon (Russell Mountains). They probably breed also in eastern Siberia (Plover Bay). Nonbreeding specimens have been observed or collected in summer at many localities on the Pacific coast, south to Lower California (Socorro Island, San Jose Island, and Cocos Island); and the Hawaiian Islands (Cocoanut Island).

_Winter range._--The winter range of the wandering tattler extends north to the Philippine Islands (Mindanao); the Hawaiian Islands (Laysan, Kauai, and Hawaii); and probably, rarely, Oregon (Cannon Beach). East to probably, rarely Oregon (Cannon Beach); California (Santa Cruz Island, and Santa Monica); Lower California (Cedros Island, Comondu, and San Jose Island); and the Galapagos Islands (Abingdon, Indefatigable, Chatham, and Hood). South to the Galapagos Island (Hood and Albemarle); Paumotu Islands; Society Islands (Huaheine); Samoa; Fiji Islands (Ovalau); New Hebrides (Aneiteum); and northeastern Australia (Cape York). West to northeastern Australia (Cape York); and the Philippine Islands (Mindanao).

_Spring migration._--Early dates of spring arrival are: Washington, Shoalwater Bay, May 1; Alaska, Forrester Island, May 7, Cape Prince of Wales, May 11, Sanak Island, May 15, Unalaska Island, May 18, and Mount McKinley, May 18; and Siberia, Copper Island, May 17.

Late dates of spring departure are: Guerrero, Acapulco, April 30; Lower California, Cedros Island, April 24, Socorro Island, May 10, Guadeloupe Island, May 18, and Clarion Island, May 20; California, San Nicholas Island, May 11, and Eureka, May 18; Washington, Neah Bay, May 20, and Flattery Rock, June 2; and British Columbia, Courtenay, May 23, and Comox, June 4.

_Fall migration._--Early dates of arrival in the fall, are: British Columbia, Okanagan, July 26; Washington, Clallam Bay, July 16, and Quillayute Needles, July 17; Oregon, Seal Rocks, July 22, and Crater Lake, July 27; California, Farallon Islands, July 13, Monterey Bay, July 14, and Santa Cruz, August 1; and Lower California, Los Coronados Islands, August 6, and Cedros Island, August 14.

Late dates of fall departure are: Alaska, St. Paul Island, October 4, and Unalaska, October 16; British Columbia, Okanagan, September 20; and Washington, Seattle, September 18, and Clallam Bay, September 19.

_Egg Dates._--Alaska: One record, July 1, 1925.

HETEROSCELUS BREVIPES (Vieillot)

POLYNESIAN TATTLER

HABITS

Three specimens of this Asiatic sandpiper have been taken in the Pribilof Islands; the first was secured on St. Paul Island, October 4, 1911, by M. C. Marsh; the other two were taken by G. Dallas Hanna, on the same island, September 2, 1917, and September 17, 1919. These constitute the only North American records. It is not easily distinguished in life from the wandering tattler and so may have occurred much oftener on our extreme western coasts.

Dr. Leonard Stejneger (1885), who took an adult male on Bering Island, in the Commanders, May 28, 1882, devotes considerable space to showing that this is a species distinct from _incanus_; but some recent writers have treated it as a subspecies. The principal differences are that _brevipes_ is somewhat smaller, has a shorter nasal groove, and has the tarsus scutellated instead of reticulated at the back; the belly and under tail coverts are pure white in all plumages, whereas in _incanus_ these parts are barred in the nuptial plumage; and the upper tail coverts, which are nearly uniform gray in _incanus_; are distinctly barred with white. The structural differences would seem to warrant specific rank.

The Polynesian tattler is supposed to breed in eastern Siberia, from Lake Baikal to Kamchatka, but, so far as I know, its nest has never been found and nothing is known about its nesting habits, eggs, or young.

_Plumages._--Except for the specific characters outlined above the plumages and molts are similar to those of the wandering tattler. In the juvenal plumage the feathers of the upper parts are notched with light buff or white; the upper tail coverts are tipped and irregularly barred with the same colors; the upper breast and flanks are suffused with light gray, more or less mottled on the chest; the tail feathers and wing coverts are tipped or notched or barred with pale buff or white; they are otherwise like winter adults.

This plumage is worn until September, when the body plumage, some of the tail feathers, and some of the wing coverts are molted, to produce the first winter plumage, which can be distinguished from the adult only by the retained tail feathers and wing coverts. In some birds a partial prenuptial molt produces a plumage which is nearly adult, but in others this molt is suppressed and a molt into the adult winter plumage comes later.

Adults have a complete postnuptial molt between July and January, and a partial prenuptial molt, involving the body plumage, the tail and some of the wing coverts, scapulars, and tertials.

_Behavior._--The habits, and probably the food, of the Polynesian tattler are apparently similar to those of our American bird. Doctor Hanna (1920) says:

I had an opportunity to observe this bird for a while with
two wandering tattlers in view at the time. The actions
of the two species were practically the same. They feed
very close to the sea on rocky shores and when disturbed
fly lazily, rarely more than 100 yards. The wandering
tattlers on this occasion appeared perceptibly larger than
the Polynesian and the notes of the two were different.
The latter uttered an irregular screech not of the same
intensity or pitch, whereas the former gave its usual call,
a series of 6 to 10 individual notes uttered in the same
pitch and rapid succession, but each of shortening duration.

_Winter._--This tattler migrates southward in winter through the Kurile Islands and Japan to the Malay Archipelago, the Philippines, and Australia. W. B. Alexander (1926) says of it in North Queensland: