70 



WILLET. 



shores and saline lakes in tlie vicinity of tlie Saskatch- 

 ewan, in the fifty-sixth parallel of latitude, where 

 Nuttall says they breed, as well as in the middle states 

 of the Union. The account of this writer is so graphic 

 and interesting, that I shall give a long quotation from 

 his "Ornithology," vol. ii, p. 145. 



"The "Willet passes the vfinter within the tropics, or 

 along the extensive shores of the Mexican Gulf. About 

 the middle of March, however, their lively vociferations, 

 'pill-will-willet, pill-will-willet' begin commonly to be 

 heard in all the marshes of the sea islands of Georgia 

 and South Carolina. In the middle states they arrive, 

 about the 15th. of April, or sometimes later, according 

 to the season; and from that period to the close of July, 

 their loud and shrill cries, audible for half a mile, are 

 heard incessantly throughout the marshes where they 

 now reside. Towards the middle of May, the AVillets 

 begin to lay. Their nests at some distance from the 

 strand, are made in the sedge of the salt meadows, 

 composed of wet rushes and coarse grass, placed in a 

 slight excavation in the tump; and during the period 

 of incubation, wdth some other marsh birds, the sides 

 of the nest are gradually raised to the height of five 

 or six inches. 



The eggs, about four, are very thick at the larger 

 end, and tapering, at the opposite two thirds the size 

 of a common hen's egg, (measuring over two inches 

 in length, by one and a half in the greatest breadth.) 

 They are of a pale, bright, greenish olive, (sometimes 

 darker,) largely blotched and touched with irregular spots 

 of a bright blackish brown of two shades, mixed with 

 a few other smaller touches of a paler tint, the whole 

 most numerous at the larger end. According to Wilson, 

 the eggs are very j^alatable as food. The young, covered 



