268 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Range. —Breeds from Oregon, southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, and southern 
Manitoba, North Dakota, and Minnesota south to Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, and 
northern California ( 11011 -breeding birds have been observed in summer as far south 
as Lower California, Colorado, Alabama, and Florida); winters from California, 
Texas, and Gulf coast through Mexico and western coast of Central America to 
western Ecuador, Peru, and the Galapagos Islands; casual in the interior States east 
of the Mississippi, Washington, British Columbia, and Alaska. 
State Records. —Both spring and fall the Western Willet passes through New 
Mexico in migration. It was noted in May, 1857, near the Rio Mimbres (Henry). 
[On May 6, 1920, 22 were seen at surface tanks at two windmills, 35 miles south of 
Silver City and May 7, 20 were seen at Walnut Wells (tank and windmill) both points 
about 4,S00 feet (Ligon). On May 27, 1918, the species was noted at Lake Burford 
(Wetmore). On May 11, 1919, 25 miles southeast of Silver City (Kellogg).] On 
the return in the fall a few were seen August 6 and 19, 1913, near Koehler Junction 
(Kalmbach), and it had already crossed the State to Carlsbad by August 16, 1901 
(Fuertes). Near the Capitan Mountains it was taken August 28, 1903 (Gaut); [four 
miles north of Albuquerque, one was seen, September 3, 1920 (Ligon)]; at Zuni it 
was taken September 4, 1851 (Woodhouse); at Carlsbad, noted on September 12, 
1901, and at Boulder Lake on September 15, 1904, at 7,500 feet (Bailey). It was 
said by Coues to breed in New Mexico, but there seems to be no sure foundation 
for the statement; neither does it winter in the State but retires to the Gulf coast and 
Mexico.—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Sometimes a mere depression in the ground lined with a few stems of dry 
grass; at others, in a tussock of grass, rather bulky, made of grass and various plant 
stems. Eggs: 3 to 4, grayish white, buff, or olive marked boldly with spots of browns 
and “subdued purple,” especially about larger end. 
Food. —Weevils, aquatic insects and their larvae, parasitic worms, snails, shrimps, 
and spider crabs. 
General Habits. —The Western Willet is a surprising, spectacular 
bird. My first was seen on the Bolles Ranch near Carlsbad. A loud 
screaming note called my attention to him—a large nondescript grayish 
bird standing on the edge of an irrigation pond in an alfalfa field. 
After jerking his head forward and back nervously for a few moments 
as he watched us, he threw open his wings, displaying their astonishing 
black and white pattern, and as I gazed bewildered, flew off, his wings 
on the down stroke looking black, on the up stroke, black and white 
(1910a, p. 163). 
A mother with nearly grown young, encountered as we drove over 
the prairie in North Dakota, kept crying wil-let , wil-let , as she flew 
around us. Decoying with heroic fearlessness, she flew around close 
over us, lighting in the grass beside the road, on the road ahead of our 
dog, and actually on the side of the pool in which the dog stood—where 
she was reflected in the water. No exposure was too great, no risk 
too heavy to draw the fire from her young” (1918, p. 114). 
Additional Literature.-—Job, H. K, Wild Wings, 249-255, 1905. 
GREATER YELLOW-LEGS: Totanus melanoleucus (Gmelin) 
Plate 27 
Description. Length: 12.1-15 inches, wing 7.5-7.7, bill 2.2-2.3, tarsus 2.5-2.7. 
Adults in breeding 'plumage: Top of head and hind neck streaked with black and white, 
