W1LLET. 
395 
Color. Adult in summer. Above, yellowish-ash, lined, spotted, and banded with dark-brown. Tail, ashy, and also 
banded. Upper tail coverts, white, banded on tips with brown. Secondaries and primaries, white, the outer of the for¬ 
mer, and all of the latter, broadly tipped with dark-brown, while the greater upper coverts and spurious wing are of the 
same color. Beneath, white, tinged with reddish, spotted on neck and banded everywhere, excepting on abdomen, with 
dark-brown. Axillaries and under wing coverts, very dark-brown. 
Adult in winter. Clear ashy-gray above, unspotted; and white beneath, without bandings, but tinged on breast and 
sides with ashy, finely streaked with darker; otherwise similar to the above. 
Yount/. Similar to the winter adult, but slightly mottled with white above and tinged on both surfaces with yellow¬ 
ish. Bill and iris, brown, and feet bluish, in all stages. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
Known from all others by the large size, straight bill, prominent webs between toes, white rump, and very dark-brown 
under wing coverts and axillaries. Distributed, in summer, from New Jersey, southward; rather rare in Massachusetts 
in autumn. Winters from the Carolinas, southward. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Average measurements of specimens from Eastern North America. Length, 14*00; stretch, 26*25; wing, 8’55; tail, 3 - 27; 
bill, 2*45; tarsus, 2*35. Longest specimen, 15*00; greatest extent of wing, 28*00; longest wing, 8*90; tail, 3*56; bill, 2*90; 
tarsus, 2*60. Shortest specimen, 13*50; smallest extent of wing, 24*50; shortest wing, 7*25; tail, 3*00; bill, 2*00; tarsus, 1*95. 
DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 
Egg*, placed on the ground in a slight depression of the soil, on a little grass, etc. They are from two to four in num¬ 
ber, rather pyriform in shape, varying from creamy to greenish-ash in color, spotted and blotched irregularly and thickly 
with brown, umber, and lilac, of varying shades. Dimensions from 1*45x2*10 to 1*50x2*25. 
HABITS. 
Of all our shore birds, the Willets are, perhaps, the most noisy and restless, for they are 
not only constantly on the move themselves but endeavor to communicate their uneasiness 
to other species. I have, on many occasions, been creeping cautiously to some rare Heron 
or other wading bird, when some wandering Willet would discover me; up it would start, 
screaming loudly, then not satisfied with this, off it would go, over the heads of the very 
birds that I wished to secure, vociferating loudly all the while, and thus starting them; then 
would not rest contented until it had flown along the entire beach, inducing every bird on 
it to rise and join in the out-cry. This much is often accomplished by a single bird, and 
a flock of a half dozen Willets, keep a mile of shore in a constant uproar, and as they are 
very common in the South, the collector is constantly wasting words and often shot upon 
these disturbers of his peace. Willets are particularly abundant in Florida and I have seen 
them equally common on both coasts. I even found them feeding about the small ponds 
in the piney woods, and have observed that these birds had a singular habit of perching on 
the limbs of pine trees, forty or fifty feet from the ground, and sometimes, a dozen birds 
would sit side by side on a single branch, presenting a novel appearance. 
These birds were changing from the gray winter plumage to the mottled summer dress, 
at Dummett’s, about the first of April, at which time they became more quiet, and a little 
later, appeared to be mating. During the first week of May, I found them breeding among 
the low scrub, just back of the beach ridge, and secured the eggs. The nests were placed 
in the midst of low bushes and were quite difficult to find. When approached, the birds 
quietly left them and, quite unexpectedly, did not appear at all solicitous for the safety of 
their eggs. Further north, the Willets breed a week or two later. This species is now 
quite rare in Massachusetts but is said by old gunners, to have been much more common 
in years past. 
