108 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



bay shores^ oyster reefs, and salt marshes, and although nest- 

 ing on the ground, usually in marsh grass, has been seen to 

 alight on bushes and trees with as much ease as land birds 

 (Audubon) . The birds occur usually in pairs or small flocks. 

 Food habits. — A single stomach of this bird from Alabama 

 contained remains of a small shrimp and of a bivalve mollusk. 

 Audubon says of its food : 



The food of the Willet consists of aquatic insects, small crabs, 

 and fiddlers, which they procure either by pursuing them on 

 foot or by probing for them in their burrows, along the mud 

 bars, and in the crevices of the creeks and salt-water ditches. 

 I have also observed it turning over stones and shells to seek 

 for worms beneath them.f 



WESTERN WILLET : Catoptrophorus semipctlmatus 

 inomatus (Brewster). 



State records. — The western form of the willet occurs in 

 Alabama only as a transient visitant. I took an immature 

 specimen — evidently a migrant — on the bay shore at Coden, 

 May 17, 1911 ; and Outsell took three on the islands — one on 

 Petit Bois, July 26, and two on Dauphin, August 23, 1911. 



General habits. — The habits of this race are apparently the 

 same as those of the eastern t)ird, except that its range ex- 

 tends to the fresh-water marshes of the interior. In migra- 

 tion it is found along the Gulf coast with the eastern race. 



UPLAND PLOVER; BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER: 



Bartramia longicauda (Bechstein). 



State records. — The upland or field plover (in reality a 

 species of sandpiper and sometimes known as "Bartramian 

 sandpiper") was formerly an abundant migrant over the 

 greater part of the State, but in recent years, through con- 

 stant persecution, it has become much reduced in numbers. 

 It still occurs as a regular migrant in spring and fall. The 

 earliest recorded date of spring arrival is March 7, 1913, at 

 Barachias, but the birds usually appear there about two weeks 

 later; in 1912 the first were seen there on March 22; and 

 Brown records their arrival at Coosada in 1878 on the same. 



tAudubon, J. J., Ornith. BioB., vol. 3, p. 513, 1885. 



