582 General Notes. [oct. 



of this species, in an open swale in an upland pasture, about a quarter of 

 a mile from the nearest salt marsh or salt water, at Arcadia, Yarmouth 

 County, Nova Scotia, on the western side of the Chebogue River. The 

 nest was near the junction of the River Road with Argyle Street, and 

 was about 150 yards from each of those much-travelled highways, which 

 were in full view from the nest-site. Several cattle occupied the pasture 

 at the time when the nest was found. The swale in which the nest was 

 placed was of considerable extent and was of the kind preferred as a breed- 

 ing-place by Wilson's Snipe; in fact, a pair of those birds were evidently 

 nesting there. The Willet's nest was a slight hollow in the damp ground, 

 lined with a few dead rushes. It was surrounded by growing rushes, 

 cinnamon fern, low blackberry bushes, and wild rose bushes, and was well 

 concealed. The eggs agreed with standard descriptions of Willets' eggs. 

 They and the nest were left undisturbed. 



The sitting Willet flushed from the nest at my very feet, and in appear- 

 ance and cries was of course unmistakable. So fast did it tear through 

 the low growth around the nest that it left me, as further proof of its 

 identity, two of its feathers, one of which is being forwarded to the Editor 

 of 'The Auk' with this note. 



On June 14, 1920, I found another Willet's nest, containing four eggs, 

 at Cook's Beach, at the mouth of the Chebogue River. This nest was 

 scantily lined with dry grass and "eel-grass" and was in a slight hollow 

 on top of a dry, grassy knoll, about fifteen feet above high-tide mark, 

 which was about fifty feet distant. The sitting bird was surrounded 

 by short growing grass and strawberry plants, and by two or three small 

 plants of Iris. It flushed from the nest at my feet, and by loud cries at- 

 tracted its mate and its neighbors, so that I soon had the pleasure of 

 seeing six Willets in the air together near me. I estimate that there were 

 about a dozen pairs of Willets breeding along the Chebogue River in 1920, 

 and the species is apparently to be considered not uncommon in suitable 

 areas in southwestern Nova Scotia. 



When scolding an intruder, Nova Scotian Willets seem to prefer to 

 perch on the very top of some spruce or fir tree, where they appear strangely 

 out of place. They also perch readily on buildings, telephone poles, and 

 fences. For such large game birds they are not very shy, and I have seen 

 one perch on top of a telephone pole close beside the road until I, riding 

 along the road on a bicycle, was directly opposite it, when it flew. 



Canada is making special efforts, under the provisions of the Migra- 

 tory Birds Convention, to give the Nova Scotian Willets such effectual 

 protection as shall result in their rapid increase in numbers. — Harrison F. 

 Lewis, Quebec, P. Q. 



The Willet in Nova Scotia. — In the last edition of the 'Check-List' 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union, under the head of Willet (Catop- 

 trophorus semipalmatus semipalmatus), it is stated that "Breeds from 

 Virginia (formerly Nova Scotia) south to Florida and the Bahamas." 

 I am glad to be able to state that this bird still breeds in Nova Scotia. 



