312 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



in flocks of from a dozen to fifty. Farther away were what 

 looked like great rafts of these birds, I should suppose several 

 thousands easily within sight. The birds appeared to be rest- 

 ing on the water, and acted as if they were occasionally picking 

 something from its surface. The ship passed near a number of 

 small groups, and as they rose on the wing — for they were 

 not very tame, and none of them were within gunshot — I 

 watched them with a glass, and recognized that all of them 

 seemed to be Willets. This confirms what, of course, has been 

 said many times, that these migrating shore birds, on their 

 long journey toward the south, often stop and rest, and, of 

 course, must find food on the journey." This is not the first 

 record from the vicinity of Newfoundland, for Reeks records 

 it there, and it is said to have bred there about ponds at some 

 distance from the sea-shore. The Willet's half-webbed feet 

 equip it for swimming well at sea. 



The Willet is a shy bird, easily alarmed, and it takes wing 

 with loud cries at the least indication of danger; but during 

 the breeding season its nature undergoes a change, and in its 

 solicitude for its nest and young it seems to forget its own 

 danger. Screaming in alarm if disturbed, it circles around its 

 nesting place, and so exposes itself to the miserable lawbreaker, 

 who recks not of time or season so long as he secures a victim 

 for the pot. Wayne watched a nest in which the young were 

 hatching. The parents became much alarmed, and he saw one 

 of the old birds take a young one and fly with it across three 

 creeks and some marsh land to an island a quarter of a mile 

 away; all the young were taken in the same manner to the 

 same place. He believes that they were held between the 

 thighs of the parent bird, as the Woodcock is known to carry 

 its young. 



The Willet eats grasses and roots when on inland lakes 

 and rivers, also small fish and fish fry. Along the coast it 

 takes many small mollusks, crabs, etc. In South Carolina it 

 visits the rice fields, and is said to feed on the grain. 



