WESTERIT WELLET 37 



and Texas, an oft-repeated error. All the breeding birds that I 

 have shot on the coasts of these two States, in May and June, were 

 clearly referable to the eastern form. And I have been unable to 

 find any specimens of inomata in collections that could be classed 

 as breeding birds from these States. If the western willet breeds 

 in Texas at all it must be on the plains or prairies of the interior. 

 But it seems hardl}^ likely that it would have a breeding range so 

 widely separated from the northern range as outlined below. The 

 eastern willet is strictly a coastwise bird and breeds, or did formerly, 

 all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. On the other hand, the west- 

 ern willet is just as strictly a bird of the inland prairies and plains 

 during the breeding season. 



Spiking. — The main migration route seems to be northward 

 through the Mississippi Valley, chiefly in April; most of the birds 

 are on their breeding grounds by the first of May or earlier and 

 are laying eggs before the end of that month. Birds which winter 

 in South Carolina and Florida probably join this route by an over- 

 land flight. There is a northward migration through the interior 

 valleys of California to breeding grounds west of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains, and probably some birds cross these mountains to the interior 

 plains. 



Nesting. — ^We found western willets very common about the lakes 

 in the prairie regions of North Dakota and Saskatchewan; but 

 owing to their habit of flying a long distance to meet the intruder 

 and making a great fuss everywhere but near their nests, we suc- 

 ceeded in finding only one nest. This was on the higher portion of 

 the open prairie, a long way from any water, near Big Stick Lake, 

 Saskatchewan. The nest was a hollow in the ground, measuring 

 7 by 6 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep, lined with grasses and 

 dry weeds. It was in plain sight in short grass; a few scattered 

 dead weeds were standing around it, but no long grass. It con- 

 tained three fresh eggs on June 14, 1906. Ernest T. Seton (Thomp- 

 son, 1890) found a nest in Manitoba " which was placed in a slight 

 hollow, shaded on one side by the skull of a buffalo and on the 

 other by a tuft of grass," on an alkali j)lain. 



The western willet breeds commonly in Boxelder County, Utah. 

 Three sets of eggs in my collection, taken there on May 7, 13, and 16, 

 1916, by the Treganzas, came from nests described as slight depres- 

 sions in short marsh grass; one was near an alkali flat, one near a 

 water runway, and one on a partially grass-grown dike. 



This bird is a rare, or very local, breeder in California. J. Van 

 Denburgh (1919) reports five nests found on "a partially flooded 

 mountain meadow " in Lassen County on June 1 and 6, 1918. " The 

 nests were made of pieces of weeds rather carelessly built up on the 



