186 BIRDS 



the yellow-legs tarries in wet meadows until the last of 

 May. Two or three days of almost continued flight carry 

 these powerful fliers into the colder climates of Labrador 

 and Hudson Ba}% 



The three or four eggs are deposited soon after the birds 

 arrive at their breeding grounds. I have a set of eggs from 

 Alberta, Canada. The background is light greenish-drab, 

 and the markings of rich brown and purple are clustered 

 about the large end. These are large for the size of the 

 bird, and the young emerge from the shell strong and able 

 to run in twenty-four hours. The southward flight com- 

 mences early in August, and the birds linger in temperate 

 North America until cold weather lessens their food sup- 

 ply, when they resume their southward journey to the equa- 

 tor and beyond. 



WESTERN WILLET 



The WiUets are the largest of our short-billed shore 

 birds; in fact, they are exceeded in size only by the curlew 

 and godwits of the entire shore bird family. 



The true willet is an Eastern form, occurring on the 

 Atlantic seacoast, breeding usually on the islands opposite 

 Georgia and the Carolinas. 



The Western Willet is very similar, but slightly darker 

 in plumage, occurring from western Indiana and southern 

 Texas, up the Mississippi Valley, through Illinois, Dakota, 

 and Kansas, into Canada. 



These birds partake of the habits of the true plovers, 

 sandpipers, and especially the yellow-legs, like which they 

 usually travel in small flocks, and are extremely noisy, 



