BIRDS OF OREGON 



Curiously enough, the first recorded specimen of this species from 

 Oregon (now in the United States National Museum) was taken at Crater 

 Lake and is doubtless the "solitary female" that Bendire (i888a) saw 

 there on July 2.7, 1882.. This bird was of course only a straggler and is 

 the only Oregon record of the bird away from the coast. Woodcock 

 (1902.) reported it from Yaquina Bay, and Nichols (1909) recorded it from 

 Seaside. Our earliest fall records are July 2.1 (Lincoln County); our latest, 

 November 2.2. (Tillamook County). In the spring our earliest record is 

 April 1-7 (Clatsop County); our latest, May 2.0 (Tillamook County). 

 There is one February 3 record for Cannon Beach (Gabrielson 192.3^, 

 which possibly indicates wintering birds. We have taken many speci- 

 mens and noted it many times, between the dates mentioned, on suitable 

 rocky places on the coast, from Clatsop, Tillamook, Lincoln, Lane, Coos, 

 and Curry Counties. Only Douglas among the coast counties is missing, 

 and this indicates lack of field work in that area rather than absence of 

 the birds. 



Western Willet: 



Catoptrofhorus semipalmatus inornatus (Brewster) 



DESCRIPTION. "Size large, bill slender, straight, about as long as tarsus; base of 

 toes webbed; base of tail and large patch on wing always white. Adults in summer: 

 upper parts mottled gray and dusky; end of tail gray; belly white; chest and sides 

 buffy, barred with dusky, and throat streaked with dusky. Adults in winter: upper 

 parts plain ashy gray; under parts white, grayish on sides of throat and breast. 

 Young: like adults, but upper parts and sides more buffy or ochraceous." (Bailey) 

 Downy young: The downy young is indistinguishable from that of the Eastern 

 Willet, which Bent describes as follows: "There is a distinct loral stripe of brownish 

 black, a post ocular stripe and a median frontal stripe of 'warm sepia.' The chin 

 and throat are white and the rest of the head is pale buff, mixed with grayish white, 

 heavily mottled on the crown with 'warm sepia.' The down of the hind neck and 

 upper back is basally sepia with light buff tips. The rest of the upper parts are 

 variegated with pale buff, grayish white and 'warm sepia'; but in the center of the 

 back is a well marked pattern of four broad stripes of 'warm sepia' and three of 

 light buff, converging on the rump and between the wings. The under parts are 

 buffy white." (Bent) Si%e: "Wing 7.88-8.2.6, bill i.zS-z.yo, tarsus z. 45 -z. 95." 

 (Bailey) Nest: A hollow in the ground, lined with grasses and other dried vege- 

 tation. Eggs: 4, ground color buff, irregularly marked with dark browns. 



DISTRIBUTION.- General: Breeds from eastern Oregon, eastern Montana, Alberta, 

 Saskatchewan, and Manitoba south to Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, 

 and northern California. Winters from Humboldt Bay, California, Texas, and 

 Louisiana southward. In Oregon: Regular but not abundant summer resident and 

 breeding bird of Malheur, Harney, Lake, and Klamath Counties. Casual transient 

 anywhere else. 



THE NEUTRAL GRAY of the Western Willet (Plate 41, 5) renders it a some- 

 what inconspicuous bird until it takes flight, when the black wing with 

 the bold white band sets it off from any other species. It frequently 



