THE SEMIPALMATED SNIPE, OR WILLET. 327 



The Willets retire to the interior of the larger salt-marshes for the pur- 

 pose of forming their nests and raising their broods in security. There, in 

 the vicinity of the shallow pools, which frequently occur in such places, the 

 bird prepares a nest on the ground, among the rank grass, of which the tene- 

 ment itself is composed. It is usually raised to the height of from three to 

 five inches, and is, I believe, annually augmented or repaired. Wilson says 

 that this augmentation or raising of the nest is carried on whilst the Willet 

 is laying and sitting; but this I have never observed. The eggs, usually 

 four in number, are placed with the broad end outwards, as is the case with 

 those of most birds of this tribe. They measure two inches and one-eighth 

 in length, by one inch and a half in breadth, are much flattened at the larger 

 end, and more or less pointed at the other. The shell is smooth, of a dull 

 yellowish-olive tint, irregularly spotted and blotched with dark umber. The 

 eggs afford excellent eating. Both birds incubate, sitting alternately day and 

 night. The young run about on leaving the shell, and are carefully fed by 

 their parents. They are of a greyish hue, and covered with down, but soon 

 shew feathers, grow rapidly, become fat and juicy, and by the time they are 

 able to fly, afford excellent food. At the first moult they acquire their full 

 plumage. 



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. 



The males are smaller than the females. I have presented you with 

 figures of the adult both in the winter and summer plumage. 



Semipalmated Snipe, Scolopax semipalmata, Wils. Araer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 27. 

 Totanos semipalmatcs, Semipalmated Taller, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., 



vol. ii. p. 388. 

 Semipalmated Snipe or Willet, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 144. 

 Semipalmated Snipe or Willet, Totanus semipalmatus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. iii. 



p. 510] vol. v. p. 585. 



Male, 151, 2 7|. Female, 15 J, 31. 



Breeds abundantly in Texas, and along the Atlantic shores to New York, 

 sparingly as far as Massachusetts. Constant resident in the Southern States. 

 Rare in the interior. 



Adult Male in spring. 



Bill long, slender, compressed, tapering, straight or recurved in an almost 

 imperceptible degree. Upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, the 

 ridge convex, flattened at the base, the sides grooved to the middle, after- 



