54 Contributions from the Charleston Museum. 



The young are hatched by May 29, and the parents some- 

 times remove them between the thighs (as the Woodcock is also 

 known to do) to a place of safety, fully a quarter of a mile away. 

 I observed this trait on May 29, 1899. I found a nest in an oat 

 field, which contained one young bird just hatched and three 

 eggs on the point of hatching. I remained near the place until 

 tne eggs were hatched, and the Willets were greatly alarmed all 

 the time. Presently I saw one of the old birds remove a young one 

 and fly with it across three creeks and marsh land to an island 

 a quarter of a mile away. This was repeated until all the young 

 were removed. 



This species, which is also known as the "Stone Curlew," 

 raises but one brood each season, unless the eggs are taken, when 

 it will lay again and again in order to raise a brood. During the 

 breeding season the birds alight on the top of the tallest trees, as 

 well as stumps, fences, etc., and are at all times very noisy. The 

 worst enemy of the Willet in the breeding season is the crow. 



111. Catoptrophorus semipalmatus inornatus (Brewst .) . West- 

 ern Willet. 



This subspecies occurs commonly in autumn, winter, and early 

 spring. It is a larger bird than semipalmatus and is sometimes 

 much grayer, but the most characteristic feature seems to be 

 the bill, which is longer and slenderer. 



The breeding range is supposed to be from the source of the 

 Saskatchewan to California. 



112. Bartramia longicauda (Bechst.). Upland Plover. 



The "Field Plover," as this species is locally called, generally, 

 if not invariably, arrives by March 22, and was formerly most 

 numerous between April 10 and 16, but it is now one of the rarest 

 of the waders on our coast. My earliest record is March 11, 

 1906. A pair of these birds undoubtedly bred within half a 

 mile of my house in the year 1901, but all attempts to find the 

 nest proved futile. On May 11, 1901, one of these birds actually 

 followed me, as the Willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus) does 

 in the breeding season. The nest was, or had been, in a cotton 

 field, but must have been destroyed the previous day as the field 

 was ploughed. When this sandpiper grew tired of hovering 

 over me (with almost motionless wings), it alighted on the top 

 of a dead oak tree. These birds must have eventually raised a 



