BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



309 



WILLET {Catoptrophorus semipalmatus semipalmatiis) . 

 Common or local names: Humility; Pied- wing Curlew. 



Length. — 15 to 16 inches; bill 2 to 2.50 ; feet partly webbed. 



Adult in Summer. — Above brownish gray or ashy, speckled and barred 

 more or less with blackish; below white, sometimes with a brownish 

 tinge; fore neck and upper breast streaked with dusky, flanks barred; 

 wing blackish below, browner above, showing, when spread, large 

 conspicuous white markings; basal part of the tail and its upper 

 coverts white, rest light ashy to whitish, sometimes barred with 

 blackish. 



Adult in Fall and Winter. — Above ash gray; below white; wmg as in sum- 

 mer; axillars black at all seasons. 



Young. — Brownish gray above, tinged with buff; white patch above tail, 

 as in adult; sides tinged with buff, finely mottled with gray; wings as 

 in adult; bill, feet and eyes dark at all ages. 



Field Marks. — Large size, extensive white on wing and white rump. Re- 

 sembles the Hudsonian Godwit in fall plumage (in which we usually see 

 it), but the Godwit lacks the great white wing markings of the Willet. 

 The Willet's notes also are distinctive. 



Notes. — Pill-imll-willet, repeated, loud and clamorous; also a single note, 

 loud, rasping, suggestive of a giant Catbird (C. W. Townsend). 



Nest. — A hollow scooped out in a tuft of grass and lined with grass. 



Eggs. — Four to five, about 2.05 by 1.50, brownish or greenish olive, spotted 

 and blotched with dark brown or various shades of brown. 



