WILLET. 
149 
their winter quarters in the warmer parts of the continent. 
Transient flocks of the young, bred in high latitudes, visit the 
shores of Cohasset by the middle of August ; but timorous, 
wild, and wandering, they soon hasten to rejoin the host they 
had accidentally forsaken. 
The Willet is found throughout temperate North America; but 
the birds breeding on the Great Plains have lately been separated 
from typical sctHipahniitn. The general breeding area of the pres- 
ent race is said to lie north of latitude 45° ' hut while the bird is 
rarely seen in New England and the Maritime Provinces in sum- 
mer, though quite common in both regions during the fall migra- 
tion, it breeds in numbers to the southward of Long Island. Only 
a few examples have been seen in the region of the Great Lakes, 
though farther south it is not uncommon in the interior. 
Note. — In 1887 Mr. William Brewster discovered that the 
Willets breeding west of the Mississippi differed from Eastern 
birds in size, color, and markings, the Western race being “larger, 
with a longer, slenderer bill; the dark markings above fewer’ 
finer, and fainter on a much paler (grayish drab) ground ; those 
beneath duller, more confused, or broken, and bordered by pink- 
ish salmon, which often spreads over or suffuses the entire under 
parts excepting the abdomen. Middle tail-feathers either quite 
immaculate or very faintly barred. ... In the plain gray and 
white winter dress the two forms appear to be distinguished only 
by size ” {Brewster). 
Mr. Brewster named the new form the Western Willet [S. 
semipalmata inornata). This race breeds on the plains west to 
the Rocky Mountains, and in winter is found on the coasts of the 
South Atlantic and Gulf States. 
