No. 47.] BIRD NAMES. 1(55 



PILL-WILLET;* in Linsley's Birds of Connecticut, 1843, PILL- 

 WILL -WILLET. (These last five names being imitative of the 

 bird's shrill cries). 



Audubon wrote of it as follows : " In the Middle States the 

 Semipalmated Snipe is known to everv fisherman-gunner by the 

 name ' Willet,' and from the Carolinas southward by that of 

 ' STONE CURLEW.' " Bryant, in his Birds of the Bahamas, 1859, 

 speaks of its being known to the inhabitants as DUCK -SNIPE; 

 and March says, in Birds of Jamaica, 1863-64, " Known here as 



the Spanish' plover." 



Mr. William Brewster writes, in the Auk of April, 1887, that 

 Mr. J. M. SoutliAvick has called his attention to the fact that 

 Western specimens of the Willet differ from those of the At- 

 lantic coast. The Western Willet, Symphemia semipahnata in- 

 ornata^ as Mr. Brewster terms it, differs from S. semipalinata in 

 being a little larger, with " longer, slenderer bill ;" and (in breed- 

 ing dress) having the dark markings above " fewer, finer, and 

 fainter," on a much paler ground, and those beneath duller, more 

 confused, " and bordered by pinkish-salmon " which often " suf- 

 fuses the entire under parts excepting the abdomen." In the 

 winter dress the two forms " appear to be distinguishable only 

 by size." Range (of Western variety) : " Interior of North 

 America between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains, 

 wintering along the coasts of the Gulf and Southern Atlantic 

 States (Florida, Georgia, South CaroUna)." 



* Mr. Dresser (cited by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway) speaks of this name 

 "Pill-willet" being applied by his boatman in Galveston Bay to the American 

 Oyster-catcher — a bird seldom found north of New Jersey, and one which may 

 be briefly described as follows, for the benefit of those who do not know it : 

 Head and neck black ; upper parts of body brown ; under parts white ; a white 

 bar on the wing; and a red bill shaped for opening shell-fisli. Again, in Bar- 

 tram's Travels, 1791, we read of "the AVill- willet or Oyster -catcher," and 

 Audubon wrote of No. 47, "Its movements on wing greatly resemble those of 

 the Oyster-catcher." 

 11* 



