WILD WINGS 
250 
by a nest and in a few minutes the mother will come timidly 
back and allow you, if you 
keep well out of sight, to 
take her picture by thread 
or bulb-release process. The 
young are quaint little 
things, and will be found 
scurrying before one in 
most unexpected places, 
their fond mother showing 
great solicitude for them. 
And the Willet — what a 
singular piece of self-asser¬ 
tion in the bird-world he is, 
at least in the nesting-sea¬ 
son ! The name of “ Humility,” by which the species is often 
locally known, seems ironical at that time. I have studied 
Willets by pools on the Western prairies, on marshes of the 
Canadian Maritime Provinces, on marshes and islands of 
the Southern coast, and find 
it ever the same. No sooner 
does one approach the 
boundaries of the great 
tract which it has preempted 
for nesting or for the feed¬ 
ing of its young than one 
or both members of the 
pair dash aggressively at 
the intruder, angrily shriek¬ 
ing out its “ yelp, yelp, pill- 
willet, pill-willet.” Each bird 
alights upon the qround or 
' * WILLET. “l INVEIGLED HIM INTO 
some stake or stub, watch- 
SPOTTED SANDPIPER SETTLING OVER EGGS 
ALIGHTING 
