SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. 



?47 



Here is a noisy, self-assertive bird, if there 

 ever was one. W'illet life, literally, is a perfect 

 " scream." And vet this forward creature has 

 been nicknamed "Humility," because it probes 

 for worms in the humble mud in the intervals 

 between the periods when it lifts up the voice 

 on high. Constitutionally, the bird seems un- 

 able to keep its mouth shut, as thouijh it had 

 blown oft the safety val\e and was compelled 

 to keep going, from sheer inability to stop, with 

 a compelling motor ])Ower behind. Its relatives, 

 the two species of Yellow-legs, have somewhat 

 the same incjuisitixe and assertive dispositions, 

 though a])parently in lesser degree. Gunners 

 have frequently lodged complaint that the noisy 

 \\'illet warns away their game. 



The acme of its fantastic performance comes 

 during the nesting season, particularly when the 

 young are abroad. Then as long as one is minded 

 to remain on the marsh, the birds, fairly beside 

 themselves, fly about yeljiing and screaming. (3n 

 Smith's Tsland, Va., I watched one, perched on 

 the dead fork of a bush out on a broad marsh. 

 With absolute mechanical precision, for a quarter 

 of an hour at a stretch, with hardly an ajiparent 

 pause to get breath, the bill would open and 

 shut, like clock work, to the tune of yip, yip, yip, 

 and so on, rapidlv reiterated. When it took to 

 wing it would start up its pi!l-ii'il!i't cries. 



Usually the nest is hard to tind. I have 

 watched the birds on the marshes of the southern 

 coast and by the sloughs on western prairies, but 

 never had the luck to locate a nest till about May 

 lO, 1904, when I was on a cruise along the coast 

 of South Carolina. We landed on an unin- 

 habited island, mostly marsh, but with a beach 

 in front, backed by a narrow ridge of sand be- 

 tween beach and marsh. Clumps of coarse beach 

 grass grew all along this ridge, and from nearly 

 every other clump, as we advanced, a Willet 

 sprang from her four large dark mottled eggs, 

 until on that (jne island we had examined over 

 fifty nests. These were frail structures of dry 

 grass, lining hollows scratched in the sand under 

 the grass clumps. 



It necil not be assumed from this that the 

 Willet is an abundant bird, for it is another of 

 our rapidly " vanishing shore birds." Formerlv 

 it was common along our .\tlantic coast, l)Ut 

 now the sight of one is a rarity. 



During the fall migration, it is seen casu.illv 

 in nuiddy sloughs or on the flats and marshes of 

 the sea-coast more reserved than is its wont, as 



Photo by H. K. Job Courtesy of Houghton MifHln Co. 



WILLET ON NEST 



though sobered by the thought of exile from 

 the fields of its vocal exploits. During winter 

 it is absent on its annual junket to varied south- 

 ern scenes as far remote as Brazil and Peru. 



IlEUnKRT K. J(ili. 



The Western Willet (Catoptrophorus scinipal- 

 inatits inornatns) dift'ers from the eastern Willet 

 in larger size and in shades of color, but its 

 general appearance and habits are the same. This 

 geographical variety breeds from central Ore- 

 gon, southern .\lberta, and southern .Manitoba, 

 south to northern California, central Colorado, 

 southern South Dakota, and northern Iowa, and 

 on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana : in winter 

 it occurs from central California, Texas, Louis- 

 iana, and the Gulf coast of Florida to Mexico 

 and Lower California. It is sometimes found in 

 the Atlantic State during migration. 



UPLAND PLOVER 

 Bartramia longicauda ( Bcchstcin ) 



.\. O. U. Number 261 .See Color Plate 37 



Other Names.— Bartramian Sandpiper: Bartram's Pasture Plover ; Grass Plover ; Prairie Plover ; Prairie 

 Saiuliiiper; Bartram's Plover: Upland .Sandpiper; Up- Pigeon; Prairie Snipe: Papabotte ; Quaily. 



Highland Plover ; General Description. — Length, 12 inches. Color 



lander ; Hill-hird ; Field Plovt 



