EASTERN" WILLET 29 



The following mating behavior was observed March 29 toward sunset. Out on 

 a mud flat exposed by low water two birds were standing. One stood directly 

 behind the other, waving its parti-colored wings over its back, and ended by 

 mounting the back of the front bird and fluttering there. The performance was 

 accompanied by a tern-like series of kuk-kulc-kuk-kuk-kulc calls. 



Nesting. — The eastern willet is decidedly a coastwise bird and it is 

 seldom seen far from the coastal marshes, beaches, and islands. Its 

 favorite nesting places are on sandy islands overgrown with grass, tall 

 and thick enough to conceal its nest, or on dry uplands where similar 

 conditions may be found in close proximity to marshes or the shore. 

 In Nova Scotia I was too late to find nests, but Mr. Lewis (1920) 

 writes : 



I have occasionally searched for the nests or the young of the willets, but 

 without success until June 8, 1920, when I found a nest with four eggs of this 

 species, in an open swale in an upland pasture, about a quarter of a mile from 

 the nearest salt marsh or salt water, at Arcadia, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, 

 on the western side of the Chetogue River. The nest was near the junction of 

 the River Road with Argyle Street, and was about 150 yards from each of those 

 much-traveled highways, which were in full view from the nest site. Several 

 cattle occupied the pasture at the time when the nest was found. The swale in 

 which the nest was placed was of considerable extent and was of the kind 

 preferred as a breeding place by Wilson's snipe ; in fact, a pair of those birds 

 were evidently nesting there. The willet's nest was a slight hollow in the damp 

 ground, lined with a few dead rushes. It was surrounded by growing rushes, 

 cinnamon fern, low blackberry bushes, and wild rose bushes, and was well 

 concealed. 



Mr. Tufts (1925) says that "they often nest in the open pastures 

 or on the rough boulder-strewn uplands at a considerable distance 

 inland," but all the nests that he found were " on low land close to the 

 feeding grounds," near the shore. One nest was located under a 

 tangle of wild rose bushes in a pasture in Yarmouth County. 



More typical nesting conditions are to be found on the coastal 

 islands of Virginia and South Carolina. In the Bull's Bay region 

 of South Carolina we visited two islands, on May 22 and 23, 1915, on 

 which willets were breeding. Most of the nests were on a sand-hill 

 plain, back of the beach, which was overgrown with tufts of fine 

 beach grass and with a few scattering clumps of myrtle bushes. The 

 nests consisted of deep hollows in the sand in or under the tufts of 

 grass, usually well concealed, and were well lined with bits of dry 

 grass^ sedges, or small sticks ; the hollows measured 6 or 7 inches in 

 diameter. A partially built nest contained only one Qgg., which was 

 lying on the bare sand and was only partially surrounded by the 

 nesting material; apparently material is added during the laying 

 period and the nest is not completed until incubation begins. One 

 nest was under a little dead, thorny bush, but well concealed, on a 

 small, high spot on an open sandy reef, not far from the nests of 

 oyster catchers and Wilson plover. Another nest, in a situation 



