30 BULLETIN li6, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



which was probably flooded at times, was built up 10 inches above 

 the damp oi-ound in a clump of thickly tufted sedges. H. B. Bailey 

 (1876) says that, on Cobb Island, "the marshes are also favorite 

 localities for breeding, and in this case the nests are more elaborate, 

 being built up from the ground, which is wet at high tide." I think, 

 however, that the willet prefers to nest on dry ground. 



Eoger Tony Peterson writes to me that, among 11 nests found by 

 him on the South Carolina coast, " five sets of eggs on one particular 

 strip of beach were located on the open sand with no preparation at 

 all made for a nest." Another set was " in a very heavy, well-made 

 nest of weeds and grass, out on the open sand, far from any grass 

 or bushes." All were very conspicuous, 



C. J. Maynard (1896) found them breeding in Florida, during the 

 first week in May, " among the low scrub, just back of the beach 

 ridge. The nests were placed in the midst of low bushes and were 

 quite difficult to find." Arthur T. Wayne (1910) " found two nests 

 on the top of a high sand hill, in wild oats {Zizania mMiacea) " and 

 E. A. Samuels (1883) says that it "has been known to breed in a 

 rye field 20 miles from the seashore." 



Willets which I have found breeding on the coasts of Louisiana 

 and Texas have proved to be referable to the eastern form. On 

 Dressing Point Island in Matagorda Bay, Tex., we found a few pairs 

 breeding, with heavily incubated eggs, on May 8, 1923. This is a 

 large, flat, grassy island on which we found black-crowned night 

 herons and a few pairs of Ward herons nesting on the ground. The 

 willets' nests were well concealed under thick tufts of luxuriant grass. 



Willets on their breeding grounds are among the noisiest and most 

 demonstrative of birds. No sooner does one land on an island where 

 they are breeding than an outcry is started and one after another 

 the birds arise and fly out to meet the intruder, until the whole colony 

 is in a state of great excitement. Regardless of their own safety they 

 circle about at short range, pouring out a steady stream of angry 

 invectives in a great variety of loud, ringing notes. And this per- 

 formance is kept up as long as the intruder is anywhere near their 

 nests. They often alight on bushes, trees, posts, or even buildings 

 and keep up a constant scolding. 



Eggs. — The willet regularly lays four eggs; as many as six, and 

 even seven, have been found in a nest, but these large numbers are 

 probably the product of two females. The eggs vary in shape from 

 ovate to ovate pyriform and they have only a slight gloss. The 

 ground colors vary from "deep olive buff" to "olive buff," rarely 

 " yellowish glaucous," in greenish types, and from " avellaneous " to 

 " tilleul bluff," rarely pale " Isabella color," in the buffy or brownish 

 types; and there are numerous intermediate shades between these 



