47 SEMI-PALMATED SNIPE. 
are excellent eating, as I have oflen experienced when obliged to dine 
on them in my hunting excursions through the salt marshes, The 
young are covered with a gray-colored down; run off soon after they 
leave the shell; and are led and assisted in their search of food by 
the mother, while the male keeps a continual watch around for their 
safety. 
Phe unity and affection manifested by these birds for their eggs 
and young, are truly interesting. A person no sooner enters the 
marshes, than he is beset by the Willets, flying around and skimming 
over his head, vociferating with great violence their common cry of 
pill-will-willet ; and uttering at times a loud, clicking note, as he ap- 
proaches nearer to their nest. As they occasionally alight, and 
slowly shut their long white wings speckled with black, they have a 
mournful note, expressive of great tenderness. During the term of 
incubation, the female often resorts to the sea-shore, where, standing 
up to the belly in water, she washes and dresses her plumage, seem- 
ing to enjoy great satisfaction from these frequent immersions. She 
is also at other times seen to wade more in the water than most of her 
tribe; and, when wounded in the wing, will take to the water without 
hesitation, and swims tolerably well. 
The eggs of the Willet, in every instance which has come under 
my observation, are placed, during incubation, in an almost up- 
right position, with the large end uppermost; and this appears to be 
the constant practice of several other species of birds that breed in 
these marshes. During the laying season, the Crows are seen roam- 
ing over the marshes in search of eggs, and, wherever they come, 
spread consternation and alarm among the Willets, who, in united 
numbers, attack and pursue them with loud clamors. It is worthy of 
remark, that, among the various birds that breed in these marshes, a 
mutual respect is paid to each other’s eggs; and it is only from intruo- 
ders from the land side, such as crows, jays, weasels, foxes, minx, and 
man himself, that these affectionate tribes have most to dread. 
The Willet subsists chiefly on small shell-fish, marine worms, and 
other aquatic insects; in search of which it regularly resorts to the 
muddy shores and flats at low water, its general rendezvous being the 
marshes. 
This bird has a summer and also a winter dress, its colors differing 
so much in these seasons as scarcely to appear to be the same species. 
Fig. 221 exhibits it in its spring and summer plumage, which in a 
good specimen is as follows : — 
Length, fifteen inches; extent, thirty inches; upper parts, dark 
olive brown; the feathers, streaked down the centre, and crossed with 
waving lines of black; wing coverts, light olive ash, and the whole 
upper parts sprinkled with touches of dull yellowish white ; primaries, 
black, white at the root half; secondaries, white, bordered with brown : 
rump, dark brown; tail, rounded, twelve feathers, pale olive, waved 
with bars of black; tail-coverts, white, barred with olive ; bill, pale 
lead color, becoming black towards the tip; eye, very black; chin, 
white ; breast, beautifully mottled with transverse spots of olive on a 
cream ground; belly and vent, white, the last barred with olive; legs 
and feet, pale lead color ; toes, half webbed. 7 
Towards the fall, when these birds associate in large flocks, they 
