SPECIES 5. SCOLOPAX SEMIPALMATA* 

 SEMIPALMATED SNIPE. 



[Plate L VI. Fig. 3.] 

 Arct. Zool. p. 469, JVo. 380. PEALE'S Museum, No. S942.t 



THIS is one of the most noisy and noted birds that inhabit 

 our salt marshes in summer. Its common name is the JVillet, 

 by which appellation it is universally known along the shores 

 of New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, in all of 

 which places it breeds in great numbers. 



The Willet is peculiar to America. It arrives from the south, 

 on the shores of the middle states, about the twentieth of April, 

 or beginning of May; and from that time to the last of July, its 

 loud and shrill reiterations of Pill-iuill-willet, Pill-will-iuillet, 

 resound, almost incessantly, along the marshes; and may be 

 distinctly heard at the distance of more than half a mile. About 

 the twentieth of May the Willets generally begin to lay. J Their 

 nests are built on the ground, among the grass of the salt marsh- 

 es, pretty well towards the land, or cultivated fields, and are 

 composed of wet rushes and coarse grass, forming a slight hol- 

 low or cavity in a tussock. This nest is gradually increased 

 during the period of laying and sitting, to the height of five or 

 six inches. The eggs are usually four in number, very thick 

 at the great end, and tapering to a narrower point at the other 

 than those of the common hen; they measure two inches and 

 one-eighth in length, by one and a half in their greatest breadth, 



* This and the five following species belong to the genus Totanus of Bechstein. 



f Scolopax Semipalmala,L.\Tti. Syn. m, p. 152, No. 22 Id Ii\d. Orn. p. 722, 

 No. 27. GMEL. Sys,t. i, p. 659, No. 331. 



\ From some unknown cause, the height of laying of these birds is said to be 

 full two weeks later than it was twenty years ago. 



