250 



WILD WINGS 



SPOTTED SANDPIPER SETTLING OVER EGGS 



by a nest and in a few minutes the mother will come timidly 



back and allow you, if you 

 keep well out of sight, to 

 take her picture by thread 

 or bulb-release process. The 

 young are quaint little 

 things, and will be found 

 scurrying before one in 

 most unexpected places, 

 their fond mother showing 

 great solicitude for them. 



And the Willet what a 

 singular piece of self-asser- 

 tion in the bird-world he is, 

 at least in the nesting-sea- 

 son ! The name of " Humility," by which the species is often 

 locally known, seems ironical at that time. I have studied 

 Willets by pools on the Western prairies, on marshes of the 

 Canadian Maritime Provinces, on marshes and islands of 

 the Southern coast, and find 

 it ever the same. No sooner 

 does one approach the 

 boundaries of the great 

 tract which it has preempted 

 for nesting or for the feed- 

 ing of its young than one 

 or both members of the 

 pair dash aggressively at 

 the intruder, angrily shriek- 

 ing out its "yelp, yelp, pill- 

 willet, pill-willet." Each bird 

 alights upon the ground or 

 some stake or stub, watch- 



WILLET. "I INVEIGLED HIM INTO 

 ALIGHTING" 



