310 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Season. — Very rare transient visitor coastwise; formerly a common mi- 

 grant and summer resident; May, June, August and September. 



Range. — North and South America. Breeds from Virginia (formerly Nova 

 Scotia) south to Florida and Bahamas; winters from Bahamas to Brazil 

 and Peru ; accidental in Bermuda and Europe. 



History. 



This large, handsome, showy bird is one of the few greater 

 shore birds which formerly bred all along the Atlantic coast, 

 from Nova Scotia and New England to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 Dr. Coues (1874) states that it breeds anywhere in the United 

 States in suitable resorts, and that he has found it wherever 

 he has been in this country, but this statement includes the 

 Western Willet, which had not been separated and described 

 at that time. Like all game birds which nest in the eastern 

 United States, the Willet has lately deserted many of its former 

 haunts. It has vanished as a breeding bird, not only from 

 Nova Scotia and New England, but also from the Atlantic 

 coast north of Virginia. This is one of the inevitable residts 

 of the spring and summer shooting so long permitted in all 

 the Atlantic coast States, and still practiced in many of them. 



Another factor in the extirpation of the Willet was the 

 destruction of its eggs. The eggs were large and well flavored 

 and were considered a great delicacy by the baymen. The 

 nests were robbed continually and the birds were shot during 

 the breeding season. 



It seems probable that the eastern Willet practically has 

 disappeared from New England, and that most of the birds 

 now taken are referable to the succeeding form, the young of 

 which are hardly distinguishable from those of the present 

 species. Little is known of the breeding of the Willet here in 

 early times. In the last century it bred in large numbers in 

 Nova Scotia; also on Muskeget Island and near New Bedford, 

 Mass., and in Connecticut. 



The following notes show its former abundance and its 

 recent decrease: Breeds in great numbers on shores of New 

 York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland (Wilson, 1813). 

 Known to breed not far from New Bedford (Audubon, 1835), 

 Breeds here (Linsley, Connecticut, 1843). Breeds from 



