X920 J General Notes. 581 



Marbled Godwit on Long Island, N. Y. — On August 14, 1920, we 

 had snipe-decoys set in a pool on the mainland marsh bordering Moriches 

 Bay at Mastic, Long Island. It was about mid-morning, and hot, with a 

 brisk southwest wind. A Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa) came in from 

 the north, alighted with our decoys, where it spent about ten minutes, 

 chiefly preening itself, a stone's toss in front of us, then took wing and 

 went on to the south. 



Its long bill was rose-pink for about the basal half, the rest seeming 

 black; its legs were lead-gray in color. Coming in it called a single pecu- 

 liar squawk or honk; alighted, and especially when other shore-birds 

 flew by, it had an unloud, very goose-like honk. 



In view of the rarity of this bird on Long Island, and the interest as to 

 whether some of the extirpated species are again becoming less rare, the 

 occurrence seems worth recording. — J. T. Nichols and Charles H. 

 Rogers, New York City. 



The Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus semipalmatus) in 

 Nova Scotia. — Dr. Spencer Trotter recorded ('Some Nova Scotia Birds,' 

 'The Auk,' Vol. XXI, No. 1, pp. 55-64, Jan., 1904) that not long before, 

 presumably in the summer of 1903, he had found Willets conspicuous about 

 the salt marshes near Barrington, Shelburne County, Nova Scotia, and 

 that, although he had found no nests of the species, his son had there 

 shot a fully fledged young Willet on the wing early in July. 



In 1910 the 3rd edition of the A. O. U. 'Check-List' said of the Willet: 

 "Breeds from Virginia (formerly Nova Scotia) south to Florida and the 

 Bahamas." On what evidence it was then supposed that the Willet 

 had ceased to breed in Nova Scotia between 1903 and 1910 I do not know. 



E. Chesley Allen, in ' Annotated List of Birds of Yarmouth and Vicin- 

 ity, Southwestern Nova Scotia' (Trans. N. S. Inst, of Sci., Vol. XIV, 

 Part 1, pp. 67-95, Jan. 5, 1916) states of the Willet: "Summer resident, 

 but more common during the fall migrations. They show all evidence of 

 breeding in our locality, though I have not yet found nest or young. 

 First appearance (5 years) May 4." 



Finally, in a list of Migratory Birds Convention Act prosecutions, 

 published in 'The Canadian Field-Naturalist,' Vol. XXXIV, No. 2, p. 36, 

 Feb., 1920, it is stated that two residents of Central Argyle (Yarmouth 

 County), Nova Scotia, had been convicted of shooting Willets. 



My own experience with Nova Scotian Willets is practically confined 

 to the lower valley of the Chebogue River, in Yarmouth County, where, 

 on the extensive salt marshes and the neighboring upland fields and 

 swamps, Willets are not uncommon, as I have known since 1911, if not 

 earlier. The only Willet which I have seen elsewhere was one observed 

 from a train window, June 25, 1913, when it was flying over the salt 

 marshes at Pubnico Harbor, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia. 



I have occasionally searched for the nests or the young of the Willets, 

 but without success until June 8, 1920, when I found a nest with four eggs 



