WILLET 263 



early September. It breeds on grassy hillsides or fields, 

 chiefly in the uplands of New England, though not now so 

 commonly as formerly. A few breed on Long Island, on 

 Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and in Worcester, Berk- 

 shire, and Barnstable counties, Mass. ; in southern Ver- 

 mont and New Hampshire it is generally distributed, though 

 nowhere common. 



As one goes through a mowing-field, a large bird springs 

 up with a rolling whistle, and flies anxiously about on long 

 curved wings, finally alighting on some heap of stones or 

 some other point of observation; just after alighting it 

 stretches both wings to their utmost up over its back. At 

 night its long mournful song is heard overhead or from the 

 moonlit fields. The long neck and rather long bill, the 

 general sandpiper appearance, will serve to identify it easily 

 in its grassy summer home, where no other similar bird 

 will be met. On the shore it can be told by its size, its 

 rolling whistle, its lack of marked white, and its preference 

 for grassy hillsides. 



Willet. Symjiliemia semipalmata 



15.00. Bill 2.15 



Ad. in summer. — Upper parts brownish-gray; lower parts 

 white; fore neck and upper breast streaked with dusky, the sides 

 barred with buff; icing blackish, showing when spread a conspicu- 

 ous patch of white ; basal half of the tail white. Ad. in win- 

 ter. — Upper parts ash-gray; under parts white; wing as in sum- 

 mer. Im. — Upper parts brownish-gray, tinged with buff; sides 

 tinged with buff, finely mottled with gray; wings as in adult. 



The Willet is a rare migrant along the sea-coast in August 

 and early September. Along the Sound stragglers are some- 

 times seen in May, and very rarely in summer. The great 

 contrast of black and white in the outstretched wing readily 

 distinguishes the Willet. The much commoner Black-bellied 

 Plover also shows white in the wings and at the base of 



