Descriptive List 139 



120. Catoptrophorus semipalmatus semipalmatus {Gmel.}. Willet. 



Ads. in summer. — Upperparts brownish gray, the head and neck streaked, and the back barred 

 with black, and sometimes buffy, the centers of the feathers being occasionally wholly black; 

 basal half of primaries and greater part of secondaries white; upper tail-coverts white with a few 

 blackish bars; central tail-feathers ashy, indistinctlj- barred irith blackish: outer ones w-hitish, 

 lightly mottled with gi'ayish; foreneek heavily streaked; breast and sides heavily barred with dark 

 brownish gray and more or less washed with buffy; belly generally white, with sometimes a few 

 bars. Ads. and Jim. in winter. — Upperparts brownish gray, unmarked; tail gray, without bars; 

 rump and wings as in the adult; breast washed with grayish; belly white; axillars black. L., 

 15.00; W., S.OO; Tar., 2.30; B., 2.1.5. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. — Breeds from Virginia southward; winters from Bahamas to Peru. 



Range in North Carolina.— Coa.sta.\ region in summer, breeding. 



One of the few species of the sandpiper group which spend the summer with 

 us. We have never seen it on fresh-water marshes, although it is said at times to 

 frequent them. A few years ago it was abundant in summer on the North River 

 marshes, near Beaufort, and quite common in Core Sound during the early fall. 

 Owing to the destruction of both birds and eggs during the breeding season, it has 

 become much scarcer during the past few years, and will soon become one of the 

 rarer of the shore-birds unless better protective measures are adopted. 



Fig. 101. Willet. 



Wet salt-marshes and mud-flats are its favorite haunts, particularly the former. 

 The nest is usually placed on the dry salt-marsh and is built of the grasses found 

 near by. It is also found nesting among the sand dunes. The eggs are four in 

 number, and May is the principal nesting month. The eggs were formerly 

 gathered by the coast-dwellers and used as an article of diet. Pearson found 

 their nests in Carteret and Bruns^\'ick counties in May and June, 1898, and in 

 Onslow and New Hanover counties in :\Iay, 1903. 



121. Catoptrophorus semipalmatus inornatus (BrewsL). Western Wil- 

 let. 



Slightly larger than the preceding, and, in summer plumage, upperparts paler and less heavily 

 marked with black; breast less heavily streaked and more suffused with buffy, middle tail-feathers 

 without black bars. In winter plumage the two forms can be distinguished only by the slight 

 and mconstant character of size. W., S..50; Tar., 2.50; B., 2.40. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. — Western United States and Canada, wintering from Florida to Mexico. 



Range in North Carolina. — Fall migrant on Pea Island. 



