AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST 
FOR THE 
Karin, Grarden, and. Honselaold. 
“AGRICULTURE IS THE MOST HEALTHFUL, MOST USEFUL, AND MOST NOLLE EMPLOYMENT OF MAN.”— Washington. 
jDEAlfGE JUDD COIPANY, 
ESTABLISHED IN 1842. 
TERMS: $1.50 per Annum in Advance, post-free; 
Publishers mid Proprietors, 345 Broadway. i German Edition issued at the same rates as in English. 
t Fonr Copies $5.— Single Number, 15 Cents 
''volume XXXIX.-No 9. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER, 1880. NEW SERiE^-No. 404. 
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THE SEMI-PALMATE D, OR “WILLET” SNIPE (Totanus semipalmalui). —Drawn and Engraved for the American Agriculturist. 
In the Middle States the species of Totanus shown 
In the accompanying engraving is known to every 
coast hunter as the “Willet,” or “ Willet Snipe.” 
This common name is derived from the peculiar 
note, wiU-vfillet or wiU-will-mllet which the bird pro¬ 
duces when rising for flight. Farther south this 
snipe is generally known as the “ Stone Curlew.” 
The “Willet” is seldom met with far inland, it 
preferring the sea coast, and especially that portion 
in the vicinity of large rivers. During the breed¬ 
ing season it is very generally found from the 
mouth of the Mississippi to New York, and occar 
sionally as far north as Boston. In autumn it re¬ 
turns to the coast of Georgia, Florida, and the Gulf 
States, where it spends the Winter in the extensive 
salt marshes that abound in that region. It also 
occurs to some extent on the western coast. In 
the Middle States— New Jersey, Delaware—the 
“ Willets ” make their appearance about the 
fifteenth of April and begin to breed a month later. 
They retire to the seclusion of the large salt 
marshes where they can build their nests and raise 
their broods of young in comparative security. 
The nest is upon the ground and built out of the 
coarse herbage of which the rank marsh grass 
affords an abundance. The eggs are usually four 
in number, measuring two inches in length by one 
and a half in breadth, and are much flattened at 
one end. During th : mating season the birds are 
unusually noisy, filling the air with their sharp 
cries, but later they brood in silence, unless dis¬ 
turbed. “ Both birds incubate, sitting alternately 
day and night. The young run about on leaving 
the shell and are carefully fed by their parents.”— 
The food of the “Willet” consists of small crabs, 
fiddlers, aquatic insects, etc., which they secure 
largely by probing in the mud bars with their long 
bills. This Snipe is at all times a shy and wary 
bird, and to be approached by the hunter with the 
greatest caution. The sight of a gunner produces 
the greatest alarm in the birds, which rise on the 
wing and give out loud angry cries, constantly en¬ 
deavoring to allure the hunter away from the spot 
where their nest and young are concealed. Audu¬ 
bon’s method of hunting them was to employ a 
well trained dog, and to conceal himself in the tall 
herbage of the marsh. The birds will fly not far 
above the dog and follow him, so that when the dog 
approaches the hunter the birds are taken on the 
wing. But this cannot be long continued as the 
birds will soon fly away to* some place of safety. 
The plumage of the “ Willet ” is soft, and a 
mixture of brown, black, and white ; the back is a 
brownish gray; the breast being white ; the bill, 
feet, and legs, are light blue ; the wings long and 
acute; the tail short and made up of twelve rounded 
feathers. They have a summer and a winter plu¬ 
mage which differ considerably; the former is 
shown in the engraving. The males are smaller 
than the females, the former averaging seven 
ounces, the latterten ounces. In the engraving the 
female is in the foreground, and therefore the con¬ 
trast in size is apparently somewhat exaggerated. 
Copyright, 1880, by Obange Judd Company. 
Entered at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., as Second Class Matter. 
