The Western Willet 



their divinity, and who by their very devotion 

 lulled the fears of that sleepy genius, I got quite 

 decently near, say, within thirty feet of my object- 

 ive. The fog just then was rolling in inter- 

 mittently off the ocean, although it was high noon, 

 and at times birds and photographer nearly lost 

 sight of each other. By dint of sacrificing a pair 

 of trousers, the photographer managed to keep 

 low on the local horizon, and although the Willet 

 showed some concern, he was so-o-o sleepy that 

 he deliberately took chances and napped — under 

 fire, as it were. The shutter, however, got upon 

 the bird's nerves, and by the time of the third 

 offense he edged away in good earnest. 



Western Willets are of common occurrence 

 during migrations along the coastal marshes of 

 California, and they winter sparingly from Santa 

 Barbara, or even Eureka, southward. At this 

 season they consume worms, "sand fleas" and 

 other crustaceans, and the smaller varieties of shell 

 fish. Bradford Torrey reports having seen thou- 

 sands together in False Bay, and that as recently 

 as 19 10; but the ranks of the Willet have been 

 sadly depleted by gun fire and by reduction of 

 breeding areas, so that small flocks, not over a 

 dozen or so, and scattering individuals, are much more common. 



For the nesting season the Western Willets retire to the more secluded 

 swamps of the interior. So far as reported, they nest nowadays only 

 in Plumas, Modoc, and Lassen counties. I found them nesting very 

 quietly in the swamps bordering Goose Lake in the summer of 1912. 

 Like the Jack-snipe of the same section, the Willets mounted guard on 

 fence-posts and observed the nester's operations with wary dignity. I 

 was unsuccessful in the quest, owing chiefly to disturbed weather condi- 

 tions that year. But Dr. Van Denburgh, more fortunate, has left us a 

 recent account 1 of a colony found breeding at Grasshopper Meadow, near 

 Eagle Lake, in Lassen County. Here, about July 1st, upon extensive 

 mud-flats surrounding a shallow lake, the "Academy" party found a 

 dozen or fifteen pairs of Western Willets, and succeeded in locating five 

 nests. The attendant birds charged and circled about the visitors, 

 something after the fashion of Avocets; and their nests, in much the same 

 fashion, consisted of weed-fragments carelessly built up on the mud. 



'The Condor, Vol. XXI., Jan. 1919, p. 37. 



Taken in 



Modoc County 



Photo by 



the Author 



A WESTERN WILLET ON GUARD 



1273 



