WANDERING TATTLER. 63 



Fall migration. — In fall the western willet wanders eastward far 

 beyond the breeding range, even to the Atlantic coast, as shown by 

 the following records: Chicago, 111., September 2, 1906 (Armstong 

 and Lawson) ; Miller, Ind., August 14, 1897 (Woodruff) ; Oberlin, Ohio, 

 September 17, 1906 (Jones); Toronto, Ontario, July 20, 1898 (Flem- 

 ing); Stony Creek, Conn., August 15, 1897 (Bishop); Keokuk, Iowa, 

 October 27, 1896 (Currier). A wanderer far north of the breeding 

 range was taken at Victoria, British Columbia, August 18, 1898 

 (Fannin). 



Wandering Tattler. Heteractitis incanus (Gmel.) : 



The first information of the breeding range of the wandering 

 tattler was obtained in 1904 by one of the parties of the Biological 

 Survey. A downy young was shot September 5 on Macmillan River 

 in east central Yukon (Osgood). July 28, 1906, a pair were seen by 

 Charles Sheldon near Mount McKinley, south central Alaska, under 

 conditions that left no doubt that they were breeding in the imme- 

 diate vicinity. It is not probable that the species breeds anywhere 

 south of Alaska, and yet it occurs in the Hawaiian Islands every 

 month of the year (Henshaw) ; on the coast of California every 

 month from March to October (Bryant), and has been taken July 2, 

 1900, on the island of Guam, and July 17, 1904, on the Philippine 

 Islands (specimens in the United States National Museum). The 

 species ranges north to Nulato, Alaska (Dall), where it is said by the 

 natives to breed, and occurs about as far north on the Asiatic side 

 of Bering Sea to Plover Bay (Bean), where it was taken in fall migra- 

 tion. 



The wandering tattler winters in lower California, the Galapagos 

 (Sharpe), the Hawaiian Islands (Henshaw), and throughout Oceania 

 to the New Hebrides. In migration it occurs on the Commander 

 Islands, along the whole western coast of North America from Mexico 

 to Alaska, and has occurred inland, accidentally at Crater Lake, 

 Oreg. (Bendire), and on the eastern shore of James Bay (Bell). 



Spring migration begins in March, bringing the birds to the coast 

 of California (Grinnell) by the latter part of the month. The Aleu- 

 tian Islands are reached the middle of May (Nelson), and the most 

 northern part of the range by the latter part of the month (Dall). 



On the coast of central California, nearly 2,000 miles south of the 

 breeding grounds, the first fall migrants appear with great regularity 

 within a few days of the middle of July, and are common a few days 

 later (Loomis). At about the same time the birds return from the 

 interior of Alaska to the coast, and are common around Bering Sea 

 for the next two months (Nelson). The last leave the northern part 

 of the range about the middle of September (Nelson) and desert the 

 Aleutians a month later (Bishop). 



