WILLET. 
29 
eggs ; and it is only from intruders from the land side, such as 
Crows, Jays, weasels, foxes, minxes and man himself, that these af- 
fectionate tribes have most to dread. 
The Willet subsists chiefly on small shell-fish, marine worms 
and other aquatic insects ; in search of which it regularly resorts 
to the muddy shores and flats at low water ; its general rendezvous 
being the marshes. 
This bird has a summer and also a winter dress, in its colors 
differing so much in these seasons as scarcely to appear to be the 
same species. Our figure in the plate exhibits it in its spring and 
summer plumage, which in a good specimen is as follows : 
Length fifteen inches, extent thirty inches ; upper parts dark 
olive brown, the feathers streaked down the centre, and crossed 
with waving lines of black ; wing-coverts light olive ash ; the 
whole upper parts sprinkled with touches of dull yellowisli white ; 
primaries black, white at the root half; secondaries white, border- 
ed with brown; rump dark brown ; tail rounded, twelve feathers, 
pale olive waved with bars of black ; tail-coverts white barred with 
olive ; bill pale lead color, becoming black towards the tip ; eye 
very black ; chin white ; breast beautifully mottled with transverse 
spots of olive on a cream ground ; belly and vent white, the last 
barred with olive; legs and feet pale lead color; toes half-webbed. 
Towards the fall, when these birds associate in large flocks, 
they become of a pale dun color above, the plumage being shafted 
with dark brown, and the tail white or nearly so. At this season 
they are extremely fat, and esteemed excellent eating. Expe- 
rienced gunners always select the lightest colored ones from a 
flock, as being uniformly the fattest. 
The female of this species is generally larger than the male. 
In the months of October and November they gradually disappear. 
VOL. VII. 
H 
