SEMIPALMATED SNIPE. 513 



Wilson says that this augmentation or raising of the nest is carried on 

 whilst the Willet is laying and sitting ; but this I have never observed. 

 The eggs, usually four in number, are placed with the broad end outwards, 

 as is the case with those of most birds of this tribe. They measure two 

 inches and one- eighth in length, by one inch and a half in breadth, are 

 much flattened at the larger end, and more or less pointed at the other. 

 The shell is smooth, of a dull yellowish-olive tint, irregularly spotted and 

 blotched with dark umber. The eggs afford excellent eating. Both birds 

 incubate, sitting alternately day and night. The young run about on 

 leaving the shell, and are carefully fed by their parents. They are of a 

 greyish hue, and covered with down, but soon shew feathers, grow rapid- 

 ly, become fat and juicy, and by the time they are able to fly, afford excel- 

 lent food. At the first moult they acquire their full plumage. 



The food of the Willet consists of aquatic insects, small crabs, and 

 fiddlers, which they procure either by pursuing them on foot or by prob- 

 ing for them in their burrows, along the mud bars, and in the crevices of 

 the creeks and salt-water ditches. I have also observed it turning over 

 stones and shells to seek for worms beneath them. 



The males are smaller than the females. I have presented you with 

 figures of the adult both in the winter and summer plumage. 



ScoLOPAX SEBiiPALMATUS, Lath. Iiid, Ornith. vol. ii. p. 722. 



ToTANUs SEMiPALMATus, Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, 



p. 323. 

 Semipalmated Snipe, Scolopax semipalmata, WUs, Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 27. 



pi. 56. fig.3. 

 Totanus SEMIPALMATUS, Semipalmated Tatler, Swains. and Richards. 'FaixmA- 



Bor. Amer. part ii. p. 388. 

 Semipalmated Snipe or Willet, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 144. 



Adult Male in spring. Plate CCLXXIV. Fig. 1. 



Bill long, slender, compressed, tapering, straight or recurved in an al- 

 most imperceptible degree. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, 

 the ridge convex, flattened at the base, the sides grooved to the middle, 

 afterwards convex, the edges broad and flattened, the breadth of the 

 mandible a little increased towards the point, which is narrowed, slightly 

 deflected and obtuse. Nostrils subbasal, linear, pervious, nearer the edge 

 than the dorsal line. Lower mandible with the angle very narrow and 



VOL. III. K k 



