SEMLPALMATED SNIPE. 477 
sides of the neck, quite ronnd; also the breast, grayish white, marked 
with smal] specks of black; belly, white, marked with a broad cres- 
cent of black ; tail, pale olive, the two middle feathers centred with 
black ; legs and fect, ashy black; toes, divided to their origin, and 
bordered with a slightly scalloped membrane ; irides, very dark. 
The males and females are nearly alike in one respect, both differ- 
ing greatly in color, even at the same season, probably owing to 
difference of age; some being of a much brighter red than others, 
and the plumage dotted with white. In the month of September 
many are found destitute of the black crescent on the belly ; these 
have been conjectured to be young birds. 
——<—__— 
SEMI-PALMATED SNIPE.—SCOLOPAX SEMIPALMATA.— 
Fig. 221. 
Arct. Zool. p. 469, No. 380. — Peale’s Museum, No. 3942. 
TOTANUS SEMIPALMATUS. — Temmincn.* 
Chevalier semi-palmé, ‘Totanus semipalmatus, Temm. Man. d’Orn. ah 637.— 
Totanus crassirostris, Vieil/. winter plumage, auct. Bonap.— Bonap. Cat. p. 26. 
e 
Tuts is one of the most noisy and noted birds that inhabit our salt 
marshes in summer. Its common name is the Willet, by which 
appellation it is universally known along the shores of New York, 
New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland,—in all of which places it 
breeds in great numbers. 
The Willet is peculiar to America. It arrives from the south on 
the shores of the Middle States about the 20th of April, or beginning 
of May; and from that time to the last of July, its loud and shrill 
reiterations of prll-will-willet, pill-will-willet, resound, almost inces- 
santly, along the marshes, and may be-distinctly heard at the distance 
of more than half'a mile. About the 20th of May, the Willets gener- 
ally begin to lay.t Their nests are built on the ground, among the 
grass of the salt marshes, pretty well towards the land, or cultivated 
fields, and are composed of wet rushes and coarse grass, forming a 
slight hollow or cavity in a tussock, This nest is gradually increased, 
during the period of laying and sitting, to the height of five or six inches, 
The eggs are.usually four in number, very thick at the great end, and 
tapering to a narrower point at the other than those of the common 
Hen ; they measure two inches and one eighth in length, by onc and 
a half in their greatest breadth, and are of a dark dingy olive, largely 
blotched with blackish brown, particularly at the great end. In some, 
the ground color has a tinge of green; in others, of bluish. They 
* Wilson has figured the winter dress of this curious ee and the Prince of + 
Musignano has signified his intention of representing its other states. It is admitted 
as an accidental straggler among the species of Europe by Temminck. — Ep. 
+ From some unknown cause, the height of laying of these birds is said to be 
full two weeks later than it was twenty vears ago. 
