>, WESTERN WILLET 419 



Hudsonian Curlew and Marbled Godwit, birds of about its own size, 

 the Willet is distinguished by its shorter and straight bill, its gray 

 rather than brownish coloration, the conspicuous black and white 

 pattern on both inner and outer surfaces of its wings (fig. 72) and 

 by the white "rump patch." The striking black and white of the 

 wings, as shown in flight, serves to distinguish the "Willet from any of 

 the somewhat smaller waders such as the Black-bellied Plover and 

 Greater Yellow-legs. The shrill, yet not unpleasant, call, pill-will- 

 willet, is also a very good field character. 



Unless hidden by marsh vegetation, as along winding sloughs, the 

 "Willet is usually a wary bird and will not allow close approach. Tor- 

 rey (1913, p. 46) says of a flock that "... there was no getting near 

 them ; I proved the fact to my dissatisfaction more than once ; but 

 sitting quietly on the same bay-shore I have repeatedly known a 

 single Godwit or "Willet to feed carelessly past me within the distance 

 of a rod or two." These birds commonly flock with individuals of 

 other species. They may be seen in company with Godwits, as men- 

 tioned above, also with our two species of Curlew, Greater Yellow- 

 legs, Turnstones, and Long-billed Dowitchers, and a "Willet has even 

 been noted attempting to fly in unison with a flock of Least Sand- 

 pipers ! 



The Willet during migrations and in winter inhabits seabeaches 

 and salt marshes, seeming to prefer sandy or muddy locations to rocky 

 or pebble-strewn shores'. Isolated individuals may be met with at 

 times, but usually there are several in one locality and when restless 

 or not feeding these often gather into fair-sized flocks, numbering up 

 to twenty-five or more individuals. Torrey (1913, pp. 45, 46) men- 

 tions seeing "Western "Willets and Marbled Godwits near San Diego in 

 such large numbers and so densely massed that he " . . . mistook them 

 at first for a border of some kind of herbage. Thousands there must 

 have been ; and when they rose at my approach, they made something 

 like a cloud ; gray birds and brown birds so contrasted in color as to 

 be discriminated beyond risk of error, even when too far away for 

 the staring white wing-patches of the "Willets to be longer discernible." 



In its chosen haunts the "Willet stalks about in search of the aquatic 

 animals which constitute its food, sometimes wading breast deep in 

 the water. Its half-webbed feet allow it to swim easily and this the 

 bird often does when lifted beyond its depth by a wave, or when pur- 

 sued. On the Atlantic Ocean, Eastern "Willets have been seen resting 

 on the water in mid-ocean during their long migration fiight from the 

 Canadian maritime provinces to the "West Indies (Porbush, 1912, pp. 

 311, 312) . As suggested in Torrey 's account these birds are often more 

 suspicious than most other large shore birds. The "Willets do not 

 decoy so readily, and even when passing over decoys the least move- 



