THE SEMIPALHATED 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 show 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. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 27. 
Totanus semipalmatus, 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, 15 %, 273. Female, 15§, 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 to 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- 
