WILLET. 



149 



their winter quarters in the warmer parts of the continent. 

 Transient flocks of the young, bred in high latitudes, visit the 

 shores of Cohasset by the middle of August ; but timorous, 

 wild, and wandering, they soon hasten to rejoin the host they 

 had accidentally forsaken. 



The Willet is found throughout temperate North America; but 

 the birds breeding on the Great Plains have lately been separated 

 from typical sennpabnata. The general breeding area of the pres- 

 ent race is given by Mr. D. G. Elliot as "from latitude 56° to 

 Texas." The bird is rarely seen in New England and the Maritime 

 Provinces in summer, though quite common in both regions during 

 the fall migration, and breeding in numbers to the southward of 

 Long Island. Only a few examples have been seen in the region 

 of the Great Lakes, though farther south it is not uncommon in 

 the interior. 



Note. — In 1887 Mr. William Brewster discovered that the 

 Willets breeding west of the Mississippi differed from Eastern 

 birds in size, color, and markings, the Western race being "larger, 

 with a longer, slenderer bill ; the dark markings above fewer, 

 finer, and fainter on a much paler (grayish drab) ground ; those 

 beneath duller, more confused, or broken, and bordered by pink- 

 ish salmon, which often spreads over or suffuses the entire under 

 parts excepting the abdomen. Middle tail-feathers either quite 

 immaculate or very faintly barred. ... In the plain gray and 

 white winter dress the two forms appear to be distinguished only 

 by size " {Brewster). 



Mr. Brewster named the new form the Western Willet {S. 

 semi^almaia inornata). This race breeds on the plains west to 

 the Rocky Mountains " from the source of the Saskatchewan to 

 California," and in winter is found on the coasts of the South 

 Atlantic and Gulf States. 



