SANDPIPERS 107 



mens from the State have been examined and all were found 

 to be of this, the eastern form. 



General habits. — This bird is well named, for it scarcely 

 ever gathers into flocks, but is found singly or two or three 

 together about shallow pools in fields, woodland, or marshes. 

 It is a lover of fresh water and is rarely found on the salt 

 marshes or the sea coast. In habits and general appearance 

 it somewhat resembles the spotted sandpiper, but its whistled 

 notes are bolder and in flight the long vidngs serve to distin- 

 guish it. Its breeding habits are little known, but the few 

 known instances indicate that the ^gs are laid in abandoned 

 nests of tree-nesting species. 



Food habits. — The solitary sandpiper feeds upon worms, 

 spiders, small crustaceans, small frogs, and various insects, 

 including grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, and the larvae 

 of aquatic forms. 



WILLET: Catoptrophoms semipalmaiiis semipalmaiiiis 



(Gmelin). 



State records. — The willet is a fairly common summer resi- 

 dent on the coastal islands, where also it occurs occasionally 

 in winter. In the interior it is found rarely in migration. 

 At Leighton, McCormack has observed it on three occasions — 

 September 1 and 30, 1887 ; and April 2, 1889. Avery observed 

 several on Dauphin Island, September 21, 1892, and I saw two 

 there, July 5, 1913. Three individuals were seen on Grand 

 Batture Island, March 22, 1912; and on Coffee Island, near 

 Coden, November 12, 1915, about six were seen in a flock of 

 smaller sandpipers. In Mississippi Sound scattered pairs 

 breed on most of the small islets and sand reefs ; several breed- 

 ing specimens were taken. May 23, on Grand Batture Island. 



General habits. — ^The willet is one of the larger shorebirds, 

 easily distinguished by its size and the conspicuous white 

 patches in the wings. It is a noisy, restless, and suspicious 

 bird, taking wing at once when alarmed, with loud cries of 

 piUy-vnU-willet. Largely a bird of the seacoast, it was for- 

 merly abundant from Nova Scotia to the Gulf of Mexico, but 

 now is practically exterminated north of Virginia and is much 

 reduced in numbers in the South. It frequents the muddy 



