320 
SEMI-PALMATED SNIPE. 
The Willet is peculiar to America. It arrives from the 
south on the shores of the middle states about the 20th of 
April, or beginning of May ; and from that time to the last 
of July, its loud and shrill reiterations of pill-will-willet , pill- 
will-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 expe- 
rienced 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-will-willet ; and uttering at 
times a loud clicking note, as lie approaches nearer to their 
nest. As they occasionally alight, and slowly shut their long 
white wings speckled with black, they have a mournful note, 
expressive of great tenderness. During the term of incubation, 
* 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. 
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