324 SEMI-PALMATED SNIPE. 



by which appellation it is universally known along the shores 

 of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, — in all 

 of which places it breeds in great numbers. 



The willet is peculiar to America. It arrives from the 

 south on the shores of the middle States about the 20th April 

 or beginning of May, and from that time to the last of July, 

 its loud and shrill reiterations of pilZ-ivill-wiUet, pill-ivill-willet, 

 resound almost incessantly along the marshes, and may be 

 distinctly heard at the distance of more than half a mile. 

 About the 20th of May, the willets generally begin to lay.* 

 Their nests are built on the ground, among the grass of the 

 salt marshes, pretty well towards the land or cultivated fields, 

 and are composed of wet rushes and coarse grass, forming a 

 slight hollow or cavity in a tussock. This nest is gradually 

 increased during the period of laying and sitting to the height 

 of five or six inches. The eggs are usually four in number, 

 very thick at the great end, and tapering to a narrower point 

 at the other than those of the common hen ; they measure two 

 inches and one-eighth in length, by one and a half in their 

 greatest breadth, and are of a dark dingy olive, largely blotched 

 with blackish brown, particularly at the great end. In some, 

 the ground colour has a tinge of green ; in others, of bluish. 

 They are excellent eating, as I have often experienced when 

 obliged to dine on them in my hunting excursions through the 

 salt marshes. The young are covered with a gray-coloured 

 down ; run off soon after they leave the shell ; and are led 

 and assisted in their search of food by the mother, while the 

 male keeps a continual watch around for their safety. 



The anxiety and affection manifested by these birds for their 

 eggs and young are truly interesting. A person no sooner 

 enters the marshes, than he is beset by the willets, flying around 

 and skimming over his head, vociferating with great violence 

 their common cry of pill-ivill-ivillet, and uttering at times a 

 loud clicking note as he approaches nearer to their nest. As 



* From some unknown cause, the height of laying of these birds is 

 said to be full two weeks later than it was twenty years ago. 



