TOTANUS. 



359 



Plates.— Wilson^ Am. Orn. pi. 56. fig. 3; Audubon, Birds Am. v. i^l. 34,7. 

 Habits. — Baird, Brewer, & Ridgway, Water-Birds N. Amcr. i. p. 285. 



Eggs.— Thienemann, Abbild. VogeleierD, pi. Ixiv. fig. 1. In their earthy-brown shade of colour 

 they somewhat resemble the eggs of the liuff. 



Literature. 



The Willet may most easily be diagnosed by the colour of its primaries, which are 

 pure white for about the basal two-thirds. Its dark brown axillaries also distinguish it from 

 all its congeners except from T. incanus and T. brevipes, which are only half its weight. 

 The fact that both its outer and inner toes are united to the middle toe by a web at the base 

 also distinguishes it from all its allies except from T. guttiferus, which has white axillaries. 



The Willet has a very extensive range on the American continent, breeding as far 

 north as lat. 56° in the North-West Territory, and as far south as Texas. To Canada and 

 the Northern States it is only a summer visitor ; but it is said to be a resident in the 

 Southern States, and a few are said to remain to breed in the West-Indian islands. It 

 passes along the coasts of Mexico, Central America, and Trinidad on migration, and 

 possibly crosses the tropics to winter on the Pampas i, but the evidence of this alleged fact 

 is not very clear. It has once occurred on the Bermudas (Reid, Zoologist, 1877, p. 477) ; 

 and has been included in the list of European birds on the faith of a skin in the Stockholm 

 Museum said to have been killed in Upland, but the authenticity of which is very doubtful 

 (Nilsson, Skandinavisk Pauna, Foglarna, 1858 ed., ii. p. 211). 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



TOTANUS SEMIPALMATUS SPECULIFERUS. 



WESTERN WILLET. 



ToTANUS SEMIPALMATUS magnitudine majore. 



The Eastern and Western forms of the Willet completely intergrade. 



l)ia2;uosig. 



Variations. 



Totanus speculiferus, Cuvier, Eigne An. i. p. 531 (1829). 

 Symphemia speculifera [Cuvier), Sclater, Ibis, 1862, p. 199. 

 Symphemia semipalmata inornata, Brewster, Auk, 1887, p. 145. 



Synonymy. 



1 Brewer's statement (Baird, Brewer, and Eidgway, Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 286) that the AVillet 

 " occurs throughout Central and South America, as far south as the Pampas, where it breeds in large numbers," 

 is very interesting and remarkable if true, but it has possibly crept in by mistake, and probably refers to some 

 other species. 



