BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



WILLET (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus semipalmatus) . 

 Common or local names : Humility; Pied-wing Curlew. 



309 



Length. — 15 to 16 inches; bill 2 to 2.50 ; feet partly webbed. 



Adult in Summer. — Above brownish gray or ashy, speckled and barred 

 more or less with blackish; below white, sometimes with a brownish 

 tinge; fore neck and upper breast streaked with dusky, flanks barred; 

 wing blackish below, browner above, showing, when spread, large 

 conspicuous white markings; basal part of the tail and its upper 

 coverts white, rest light ashy to whitish, sometimes barred with 

 blackish. 



Adrdt in Fall and Winter. — Above ash gray; below white; wing as in sum- 

 mer; axillars black at all seasons. 



Young. — Brownish gray above, tinged with buff; white patch above tail, 

 as in adult; sides tinged with bufl^, finely mottled with gray; wings as 

 in adult; bill, feet and eyes dark at all ages. 



Field Marks. — Large size, extensive white on wing and white rump. Re- 

 sembles the Hudsonian Godwit in fall plumage (in which w^e usually see 

 it), but the Godwit lacks the great white wing markings of the Willet. 

 The Willet's notes also are distinctive. 



Notes. — Pill-ivill-willet, repeated, loud and clamorous; also a single note, 

 loud, rasping, suggestive of a giant Catbird (C. W. Townsend). 



^cst. — A hollow scooped out in a tuft of grass and lined with grass. 



Eggs^ _ Four to five, about 2.05 by 1.50, brownish or greenish olive, spotted 

 and blotched with dark brown or various shades of brown. 



