SEMIPALMATED SNIPE, OR WILLET. 145 



native abodes and ordinary migrating circuits. From the 

 scarcity of this species on the shores of Massachusetts Bay, 

 it is more than probable, that their northern migrations are 

 made chiefly up the great valley of the Mississippi ; and 

 they have been seen, in the spring, by Mr. Say, near En- 

 gineer Cantonment, on the bank of the Missouri. A few 

 straggling families or flocks of the young, are occasionally 

 seen, about the middle of August, on the muddy flats of 

 Cohasset beach ; but they never breed in this part of New 

 England, though nests are found in the vicinity of New 

 Bedford. 



The Willet probably passes the winter within the tropics, 

 or along the extensive shores of the Mexican Gulf About 

 the middle of March, however, their lively vociferations of 

 pill-iviU-iPillet^ pUl-ioill-icUlet , begin commonly to be heard 

 in all the marshes of the sea islands of Georgia and South 

 Carolina. In the Middle States they arrive about the loth of 

 April, or sometimes later, according to the season ; and, 

 from that period to the close of July, their loud and shrill 

 cries, audible for half a mile, are heard incessantly through- 

 out the marshes where they now reside. Towards the close 

 of May, the Willets begin to lay. Their nests, at some 

 distance from the strand, are made in the sedge of the salt 

 meadows, composed of Avet rushes and coarse grass placed 

 in a slight excavation in the tump ; and during the period 

 of incubation, as with some other marsh birds, the sides of 

 the nest are gradually raised to the height of five or six 

 inches. The eggs about 4, are very thick at the larger end, 

 and tapering at the opposite, two-thirds the size of a com- 

 mon hen's egg, (measuring over 2 inches in length, by l-J- in 

 the greatest breadth ;) they are of a pale bright greenish- 

 olive (sometimes darker), largely blotched and touched with 

 irregular spots of a bright blackish-brown of two shades, 

 mixed with a few other smaller touches of a paler tint, the 

 13 



