Chapter III: Introduction (2)

Now, of all our waders, this is the noisiest, and there is
little trouble in finding the locality where it breeds,
for the old male is always about some brook in the
neighborhood, and I have before noticed that the loud, wild
cry of the green sandpiper and greenshank are much alike.

_Nesting._--The nesting habits of the green sandpiper have been fully described, but were practically unknown to naturalists till about 1852–1860, when quite independently Forester, Weise, and Hintz (sen.), in Germany, and H. W. Wheelwright in Sweden, published the results of their discoveries. The story is told in detail by Forest-Inspector Weise, in the _Journal für Ornithologie_ for 1855 (p. 514). He had first heard of the habit of adopting old nests of other species in trees from an old ranger, but naturally discredited it. However, in 1845, the same man brought him four sandpipers’ eggs from a nest in an old beech. Next spring Weise found a green sandpiper breeding in a pine about 25 or 30 feet from the ground. He climbed to the nest and found the four eggs so highly incubated that the young could be heard squeaking inside the shells. Two other nests in similar sites came to his notice subsequently, the last on May 25, 1855, when the four eggs were already chipped.

Forester, W. Hintz 1, writing in the same periodical for 1862 (p. 460) says that he had found sandpipers’ nests in trees as far back as 1818, but at that time he had no correspondents who took any interest in birds’ eggs and only took a clutch or two for his own collection. On April 26, 1834, he found a clutch of this species in a nest of the song thrush (_Turdus philomelus_) and from 1852 onward, as the circumstances began to be known to German naturalists, he found a long series of nests with eggs of which he gives full details. Most of these eggs were laid in old nests of song thrush (_Turdus philomelus_), but some were placed in old nests of pigeon (probably _Columba palumbus_) or squirrel’s dreys, and in one case the young were found in an old nest of red-backed shrike (_Lanius collurio_). Another curious case recorded is that in which an old aspen (_Populus tremula_) was broken off and a hole which had been occupied in the previous year by a pied flycatcher, contained a brood of young green sandpipers, which had apparently only been hatched half an hour before. On the forester’s approach the young birds jumped from the hole and concealed themselves among the grass. Some further details are also given in a letter from Hintz sent to the Rev. H. S. Hawkins and published in Dresser’s Birds of Europe; also in the _Journal für Ornithologie_ for 1864 (p. 186).

Summarizing these we find that the birds arrive on their nesting grounds in Germany from the beginning to the middle of April, choosing wooded localities in marshy districts with pools or slow-flowing streams in the neighborhood. Old nests of song thrush, blackbird, mistle thrush, red-backed shrike, and half-ruined nests of jay, woodpigeon, or squirrel are all adopted from time to time. Occasionally the eggs are laid in a hollow where dead leaves and pine needles have accumulated, and holes formerly used by starlings and flycatchers have been taken possession of. The height from the ground varies considerably, some nests may be as much as 35 or 40 feet above the ground while others are only a few feet up. The distance from the nearest water is also variable, as though most nests are within 500 yards, yet occasionally the birds have been known to nest half a mile away.

Meantime H. W. Wheelwright in Sweden had met with an exactly similar state of things, and in the _Field_ newspaper of August 18, 1860, described the tree-nesting habits of this species. The editor, who was ignorant of the evidence of Weise and Hintz, openly expressed his doubts as to the accuracy of the observations, but Wheelwright stuck manfully to his facts and subsequently the editor admitted his mistake. The republication of Wheelwright’s notes in Sweden in 1866 elicited further evidence from Jagmaster Lundborg, who had on one occasion taken the eggs from what appeared to be an old squirrel’s drey or nest. The only important difference in the habits of the bird in the two countries appears to be that nests of the hooded crow (_Corvus c. cornix_) are freely used in Sweden and also those of the fieldfare (_Turdus pilaris_).

Like the greenshank, the green sandpiper has a great attachment to certain localities and in some cases the identical nest has been used for two consecutive seasons. In a district where the birds are not scarce, this naturally renders the discovery of the nest much more simple to the resident, and explains the success of Forester Hintz and others in discovering the eggs. Very little in the way of addition appears to be made by the sandpipers to their adopted home and the pine needles which are noted in the interior of old thrushes’ nests may well have dropped from the adjacent trees in the ordinary way.

_Eggs._--These are normally four in number, pyriform in shape, rather thin shelled and, as compared with those of the wood sandpiper, generally large and pale in coloring, showing more of the ground colors and fewer markings. The ground color varies from some shade of pale greenish or greenish grey to warm creamy, buffish stone color and light yellowish red. The markings are generally rather fine and in the reddish eggs are rich purplish brown, shading into very dark brown, while in the greenish eggs they are generally less reddish and more purplish in tone. Numerous fine speckles are characteristic and there are generally also some underlying shell marks of violet or ashy. The measurements of 100 eggs average 39.11 by 28.04 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =42= by 28, =41.1= by =30.3=, =34.6= by 26, and 34.8 by =25.7= millimeters.

_Young._--As to the shares of the sexes in incubation, there are references to females shot from the nest and males on guard in the neighborhood, but how far this has been confirmed by dissection and how much is surmise it is not easy to say. The incubation period is also unknown. When the young are hatched their stay in the nest is very short. Besides Hintz’s observation, quoted above, of recently hatched young jumping from the nest into the grass on his approach. Wheelwright also found on one occasion four very small young, apparently not a day old, at the foot of a fir, while in the nest overhead were the empty shells, still wet inside. In this case the early abandonment of the nest was not due to human interference. On another occasion Hintz found three young and a chipped egg in a squirrel’s drey about 30 feet up in a birch. The young birds sprang from the nest and alighted on the ground without injuring themselves, concealing themselves at once among the grass.

_Plumages._--The molts and plumages are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920), to which the reader is referred.

_Food._--The main food of this species consists of insects, especially small coleoptera and their larvae, but larval forms of other water insects such as the Phryganeidae are also taken and also larvae of Diptera. Other substances recorded include wood lice, spiders, and not infrequently the very small red worms, which are to be met with on the edges of stagnant pools, but apparently not common earthworms. Traces of vegetable matter are also recorded. H. Stevenson also includes small fresh-water mollusca, and W. Farren, algae, tender shoots of plants and on the seashore thin shelled Crustacea.

_Behavior._--The green sandpiper may be met with in the British Islands in almost every month of the year except perhaps June, when it is decidedly rare, though only a few individuals stay with us through the winter. As some birds have undoubtedly stayed through the summer, breeding has been suspected on several occasions, but the evidence has always been unsatisfactory. It occurs most frequently in spring and autumn, sometimes singly and sometimes (especially in autumn), in family parties, haunting the margins of brooks and ponds.

They are much more deliberate in their movements than the common sandpiper and search the mud very thoroughly, boring into it with the bill, probably in search of the small red worms on which they feed. Without being especially shy, they have their wits about them and frequently the piping note which they utter when well on the wing (not just prior to rising) is the first indication of their presence to the shooter. The striking contrast of color between the dark greenish mantle and the snow white rump and tail coverts render its recognition a fairly simple matter. From the wood sandpiper it can be readily distinguished if a glimpse can be caught of the undersurface of the wing, for in the green sandpiper the axillars are very dark, looking almost black, whereas in the wood sandpiper they appear almost white with faint barrings.

_Voice._--With regard to the notes, during the breeding season the alarm is given by a loud sharp call which is variously written as _gik_, _giff_, _yick_, _yeck_, etc., somewhat recalling the nuthatches’ call. Christoleit also describes a pairing song, which bears some resemblance to that of the other sandpipers, but does not make it clear whether it is uttered on the wing or on the ground. In forested country it is naturally not so easy to settle a point of this kind as in open country. The full song is written by him as: _Tittittitluidich-luidich titluidie titluidie titluidie-titt-titt_. Probably this is the love song and forms part of the courtship, but we still await a connected history of the courtship of this species.

_Fall._--Hintz noticed the last birds on their German breeding grounds up to July 25, and it is about the middle of July when the first immigrants appear in the British Isles. The great majority of our visitors have left by November. During the period of its stay it is rarely to be met with on the seashore, but nearly always makes its way inland by means of the water courses, preferring a sheltered brookside or an inland pool to the open marshes.

_Winter._--The evidence of wintering in South Africa rests entirely on some old records by Layard, unsupported by skins, but the winter quarters undoubtedly extend to Angola, British Central Africa, and Portuguese East Africa. Unlike so many waders it does not associate in large flocks, but generally is found singly or in small parties on inland waters in preference to the coast. Large numbers winter in Egypt and a good many at suitable spots in the Mediterranean Region. In Luzon (Philippine Islands) Whitehead found it common in December in Benguet, at a height of 4,000 feet, and on Rumenzon it has been met with at 6,000 feet, while in Abyssinia, Jesse describes it as common on the highlands, but did not meet with it on the coast.

DISTRIBUTION

_Breeding range._--Northern Europe; but very sparingly in Norway up to Nordland; in Sweden more generally north to the Arctic Circle; Finland to 63° 10´; North Russia south of the White Sea and on the Kamin Peninsula (66° 50´). Southward it breeds in the Baltic Republics, in North Germany (Holstein?, Oldenburg?, Hanover, Mark Brandenburg, Pommern, West and East Prussia, Silesia); sparingly in Bavaria; Czechoslovakia (Bohemia), Galizia and the Carpathians; possibly occasionally in Jutland, but records from South France and North Italy can not be relied on. In Asia it breeds across the continent in the valleys of the Ob, Yenisei, Lena, etc., south to Turkestan and Transcaspia.

_Winter Range._--The main winter quarters lie in southern Europe and Africa where it ranges south to Portuguese East Africa, British Central Africa, and Angola, perhaps even to the Cape (Layard) and in Asia to Iraq, India, Ceylon, the Andamans, Burma, Cochin China, China, Hainan, Formosa, and the Malay Archipelago (Philippines).

_Spring Migration._--In February and March it passes north through Morocco from its African winter quarters, and in Tunisia is most abundant on spring passage in March and April, while its stay in equatorial Africa does not extend beyond March. In the marshes of Iraq it stays till mid May, the spring in North Asia being later than in West Europe. This is also the case in India, where they do not leave till about mid May. In southeast China they pass in the first half of April, usually singly. It has been noted on passage in Corsica in April (late date May 28); some winter on the Balearic Isles where it has been noted up to the end of May, while in Cyprus it is found on passage in March, April, and May (birds seen in Greece on 25th July and in South China on 11th and 24th July were either nonbreeders or extraordinarily early migrants southward). The first arrivals reach their breeding grounds in Germany about the end of March, and in the Baltic states they arrive about the end of March or early April.

_Fall migration._--Leaving their breeding grounds in Central Europe about the end of July, they pass the Straits of Gibraltar about August–September and in Greece arrive in some numbers in September. In the Iraq marshes the arrival takes place during August, while in India it sometimes comes during the latter half of July, but more frequently in August. In southeastern China the first arrivals come in about the end of July or early in August, but the main body passes in September or October. In Burma it is generally distributed during the winter months, but apparently does not range down the Malay Peninsula.

_Casual records._--It is a winter visitor to Japan and occurs occasionally on the Canaries, but the record from Mauritius must be regarded as doubtful, and that from Australia by R. Hall is due to confusion with _T. glareola_. Gould’s record from Borneo is also doubtful and the American records can only be received with some suspicion.

_Egg dates._--In Germany out of some 25 records only five fall between April 15 and 24. From May 2 to 15 there are nine records, from May 18 to 29 five records, and from June 1 to 23, six records. Probably most of these late dates are due to birds laying again which have been previously robbed. In Sweden all dates fall between May 6 and June 20 (13 records) and of these eight fall between May 6 and May 21. The second half of May is the usual time in the southern Provinces, but in the north and Finland few eggs are laid before June. In Siberia eggs may be found till the first half of July.

RHYACOPHILUS GLAREOLA (Linnaeus)

WOOD SANDPIPER

_Contributed by Francis Charles Robert Jourdain_

HABITS

The only record of this species within North American limits is due to Chase Littlejohn (1904), who obtained a single specimen on May 27, 1894, on Sanak Island, Alaska.

_Courtship._--Our information on this point is somewhat scanty. The song flight has of course been frequently described and observed, but the actual courtship of the female can only be observed under somewhat difficult conditions and there must be a considerable element of luck in any case where it can be closely studied. All the evidence hitherto obtained goes to show that it is carried on in much the same way as that of the common sandpiper (_Tringa hypoleucos_), but the song flight forms a much more conspicuous part of the proceedings. When the male alights he has a habit of elevating his wings for a moment, until, as Seebohm says, they almost meet overhead, much as Temminck’s stint also does. Apparently this forms part of the display before the hen, but the male may also be seen running by the side of the female with drooping wings. One can as a rule only get a momentary glimpse and generally at a considerable distance. The love song is, however, quite another matter. On the heaths of West Jutland one can see the males in rapid flight even from the windows of the trains, while in North Finland the loud musical _leero_, _leero_, _leero_, is one of the most familiar sounds in the wood-fringed marshes. John Hancock (1874), who by persevering search found the only nest which has ever been discovered in the British Isles, in June 1853, gives a very graphic account of it. He was on a visit to Prestwick Car, in Northumberland, at that time undrained, and as he says:

About 3 o’clock our dogs, a retriever and a setter, raised
a bird about 50 yards in advance of us, which at once rose
to a considerable height coursing about, rising and sinking
somewhat in the manner of a snipe, and like it, while
sweeping downwards with outstretched, tremulous wings,
produced a peculiar drumming note, but one much shriller
than that of the snipe, and almost amounting to a sort of
musical whistle. From the strangeness of the actions and
peculiar whistling or drumming note, I was convinced that
we had met with a rare bird, and that its nest was near at
hand. The birds were still in view flying about; our only
chance now was to watch the bird to its nest. It was not
long before one of the birds “pitched” and after allowing
a little time for it to settle I went forth to raise it,
but did not succeed. The bird, however, was soon in the air
again flying about as before. The watching dodge was again
tried and this time the bird was marked to, and raised from
the nest. There lay the nest, with its four pretty eggs, on
the side of a dry hillock where grew some heath and grass
in the midst of a swampy spot.

One of the parents was subsequently shot by Mr. Reay to authenticate the identification, and the specimen is still extant. Seebohm (1884) also describes the song flight, but it is difficult to reconcile his account with the facts. According to him:

The note which the male utters during the pairing season
is much more of a song than that of the grasshopper
warbler, which it somewhat resembles; it is a monotonous
_tit-it-it_, begun somewhat low and slow, as the bird is
descending in the air with fluttering upraised wings,
becoming louder and more rapid and reaching its climax as
the bird alights on the ground or on a rail, or sometimes
on the bare branch of a willow, the points of its trembling
wings almost meeting over its head when its feet find
support. This song is a by no means unmusical trill, and
has an almost metallic ring about it.

The comparison to the trill of the grasshopper warbler seems very far fetched, and would apply far better to the persistent trilling of Temminck’s stint. In fact the note reads like a paragraph drafted from filed notes jotted down when the writer was surrounded by singing stints and sandpipers; the metallic and musical song and dashing flight being that of the wood sandpiper and the monotonous trill being that of Temminck’s stint. To my ear the Finnish name of the bird, “liro,” exactly describes the ringing musical cadence which one hears overhead so frequently by the lake sides and marshes of Sweden and Finland. Buturlin notes the song as _peri_, _peri_, _logi_, _logi_, _logi_, and von Droste’s translation is also expressive _hithitit-tli-a_, _tli-a_, _tli-a_, _tlia_. It is obvious that this bears no likeness whatever to the monotonous droning note, rising and falling slightly as the bird turns its head, of _Locustella naevia_. Occasionally the song of the wood sandpiper is uttered while the bird is perched on a bush or in treeless districts even on the ground.

_Nesting._--Although often not concealed with any art, the nest of the wood sandpiper is by no means an easy one to find, as the possible area is so vast, while the sitting bird frequently remains on the eggs until almost trodden on. In consequence most nests are discovered by accident, when the bird has been flushed at one’s feet, or by long and systematic beating of likely ground in the neighborhood of a singing male. The nest is, however, almost invariably on some slight eminence, a hummock in some cases as much as 2 feet high, though often smaller, and on dry ground, though there may be water within a foot or so. The actual nest is merely a hollow in the ground, lined with bents and grasses and is usually to be found on low-lying ground where willow scrub, heath mosses, and rank grasses furnish a certain amount of cover. This is the normal European site, but H. Leyborne Popham (1897), while collecting on the Yenisei in 1895, found that out of five nests discovered in that season, only one was placed on the ground, while the eggs in the other four cases were laid in the numerous old nests of fieldfares (_Turdus pilaris_) and other thrushes which were to be seen in great numbers in the trees. In 1900 Mr. Popham (1901) was able to confirm these observations, for in the forest district two more clutches were taken from old thrushes’ nests, while at the edge of the tundra two nests were found on the ground. That this habit is not strictly confined to the forest districts of Asia was proved by Lieut. S. A. Davies (1895), who visited the upper waters of the River Muonio on the borders of Finland and Sweden in 1904. He obtained a clutch from an old nest of great grey shrike (_Lanius excubitor excubitor_), placed in the fork of a birch about 20 feet from the ground. A. Cnattingius also found the eggs on one occasion in Sweden in a fieldfare’s nest, 8 feet from the ground. There is some evidence that in certain parts of the range this species breeds almost in colonies. Collett has described a case of this kind from the high field of southern Norway, and Forester Hintz (sen.) writes that on one marshy flat of about 60 acres in Mecklenberg from 7 to 9 pairs were breeding, and that on May 25, 1858, he received no fewer than 26 fresh and partly incubated eggs from this locality.

_Eggs._--These are normally four in number, pyriform in shape and thin shelled. The ground color varies from a beautiful pale green to creamy white and exceptionally to warm buff. They are spotted and blotched, more heavily at the large end, with warm reddish brown, some eggs have most of the markings small, but others have large and almost confluent blotches. There are also a few purplish brown shell marks. The measurements of 100 eggs average 38.34 by 26.4 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure =42= by 28.1, 41.5 by =28.5=, =35.5= by 25 and 37 by =24.4= millimeters.

_Young._--Both sexes take part in incubation; all the birds shot by Popham from the nest in 1895 were males, but in 1900 he found that out of two killed one was a male and the other a female. Collett also notes that both sexes have incubation patches. When the young are hatched the parents display the greatest anxiety, but the male bird seems to take the greater share in brooding and guarding them. On one occasion H. J. Pearson (1904) surprised a bird with four young only about a day old in a marsh. He placed the young in his pocket after having spent half an hour in finding them, though they were fully exposed to view and all within 10 yards. The young soon began to cry out and the parent bird, which he surmised to be the male, followed him nearly a mile, often settling within 5 feet and expressing his views. He then flew back to the marsh, but actually returned and settled on a low shed near the house. Lieut. S. A. Davies (1895) having caught a brood of young, placed them on the ground in a marsh, first in one place and then in another, in order to watch them.

The male bird would run excitedly in and out of the
tussocks, searching everywhere till he heard their feeble
chirp. Then he would run toward them and settle down a
yard or two off, quickening his note to a continuous
_giff-giff-giff_. Then all the young had to tumble along
laboriously (for they could hardly walk) till they reached
the male bird who tucked them safely under his wings; once
or twice the female bird appeared on the scene for a minute
or two, when both would soar in the air like drumming snipe.

_Plumages._--The molts and plumages are fully described in A Practical Handbook of British Birds, edited by H. F. Witherby (1920), to which the reader is referred.

_Food._--The greater part of the food consists of insects and their larvae, but worms are also taken in some numbers and small mollusca, as well as spiders. Among insects the following classes may be mentioned: Beetles (Coleoptera), including many water beetles, _Haliplus_, _Hydroporus_, _Dytiscus_, _Berosus_, _Dryops_, _Helichus_, _Phylobius_ (all recorded by Hesse), and _Gyrinus_, _Hydroporus_, _Donacia_, and _Colymbetes_ (R. Gray). Of Diptera, Hesse records larva of _Stratiomys_ (also recorded by Bar), and among Rhyncota, _Plea minutissima_ (once by Hesse). Rey also met with Arachnida (spiders), and Jäckel records small fish.

_Behavior._--Many observers have called attention to the habit of perching on trees. Seebohm (1884) mentions having shot specimens from the summit of high bare trees at least 65 feet from the ground, and similar observations have been made wherever it has been met with in forested regions. Beside the love song already described, this bird has an alarm note, which Davies renders as _tchick-tchick_, or _giff-giff_, and which is generally uttered from the top of a bush or post. A. Chapman phrases this note as _chirkop_, _chirkop_, _chib_, _chib_.

_Fall._--From July to October it appears often singly, but also at times in flocks in Great Britain. As a rule these flocks are of no great size, but on July 26, 1867, Mr. Power met with large numbers at Rainham, Kent, and when one had been shot others rose on all sides, forming one large flock, which flew round and round, keeping up a continual whistle. He estimated the number at 80–100.

_Winter._--During the winter months it haunts mud banks at the mouths of rivers or marshes and streams inland in small flocks, or sometimes in pairs, feeding on worms and small insects in southern Africa. Its habit of perching on trees and bushes has also been noted when wintering in northern Africa (Tunisia). On the whole, it may be described as a fresh-water haunting species, usually avoiding the neighborhood of the sea.

DISTRIBUTION

_Breeding range._--Not on the Faeroes, as stated by Ridgway, but formerly in very small numbers in Great Britain, Holland, Jutland, Scandinavia, north Germany locally. Finland, the Baltic Republics, and Russia generally; also in Asia, east across Siberia to Kamtschatka and the Commander Isles, north to about 75° on the Yenisei and 71° on the Lena. Reports of breeding in south Europe (Spain, north Italy, Pyrenees, etc.) require confirmation.

_Winter range._--Africa, south to Cape Province; Asia, southern Arabia, Iraq (chiefly on passage), India and Ceylon, Burma, the Malay Peninsula, and southeast China; the Malay Archipelago (Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Celebes, Timor, Philippines, etc.); and Australia.

_Spring migration._--It leaves its winter quarters in South Africa in March, is common in the swamps of Morocco toward the end of April, fairly plentiful in Tunisia in April and also in numbers in Egypt, some remaining till May. Most have left Iraq by mid May, and the departure from India, Ceylon, and Burma also takes place in May. They pass Gibraltar from March 9 to early May; Corsica, April 12 to May 28; Cyprus, April–May (late date May 20); Corfu, April 19–May 6; while a few visit the south and east coast of Great Britain in April and May. On the lower Petchora they did not arrive till May 26.

_Fall migration._--From Portugal it is recorded on August 18, Spain (early date, August 4), passes through Italy in some numbers from August to October, leaving Sweden in September and passing the eastern Pyrenees in September-October. It reaches Iraq in August, but rarely stays after October; arrives in India and Burma in August; and in South Africa in September-October, early dates, August, Transvaal (August 28) and Zambesi River.

_Casual records._--Faeroes (H. C. Muller), Madeira (R. Gomez), Canaries (occasional D. A. Bannerman), Hawaiian Isles, and Sanak Island, Alaska (C. Littlejohn).

_Egg dates._--In Holland, May 11 to 25 (9 dates); Jutland and Germany, May 7–25 (about 18 dates, mostly after May 20); south Sweden from mid May onward; Lapland, June 3–16 (16 dates), June 17–27 (11 dates), July 7 (one date).

CATOPTROPHORUS SEMIPALMATUS SEMIPALMATUS (Gmelin)

EASTERN WILLET

HABITS

A score of years or so ago it seemed as if this large showy wader was destined to disappear from at least the northern portion of its range on the Atlantic coast. It had entirely ceased to breed in many of its former haunts and was nearly extirpated in others. Most of the birds that we shot on migration in New England were immature birds from the West. In Wilson’s (1832) time it bred “in great numbers--along the shores of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland.” Audubon (1840) wrote that “a few have been known to breed not far from New Bedford in Massachusetts,” probably on some of the islands off the coast. In 1875 H. B. Bailey (1876) found it breeding “in large numbers” on Cobb Island, Va.; when we visited this locality in June, 1907, there were not over two or three pairs of willets breeding there; they have increased since then under protection. Maj. G. Ralph Meyer wrote to me in 1922 that about 15 pairs bred on Cobb Island and 5 or 6 pairs on Hog Island that year. It does not now breed in any numbers, so far as I know, north of South Carolina, except in the Nova Scotia colonies.

Although our check list does not recognize that fact, it has been known for many years that willets breed regularly in southern Nova Scotia, though during the early years of this century they came very near being extirpated. Dr. Spencer Trotter (1904) recorded the willet as “one of the most conspicuous inhabitants of the tidal marshes” near Barrington, Shelburne County. But when I visited that locality with him in July, 1907, we found only one pair. Evidently they began to increase again after that under adequate protection. Harrison F. Lewis (1920) found them breeding in Yarmouth County, and Dr. Charles W. Townsend (1920_a_) saw a flock of 10 on July 18 and as many as 26 on July 25, 1920, near Barrington. Later information from R. W. Tufts (1922 and 1925) shows a decided increase up to 1922, when he estimated that there were 736 willets, old and young, between Digby and Queens Counties; but in 1923 and 1924 there seemed to be no further increase.

_Spring._--The northward migration of willets, which breed north of the winter range, is along the Atlantic coast, starting in March. The first migrants reach Virginia during the first or second week in April, but do not appear in Massachusetts until May, the main flight passing between the middle and last of that month. The probability of an offshore migration route is suggested by the following interesting observation made by Dr. George B. Grinnell (1916) during the last days of May, 1907:

It was in the middle of the morning of a gray, but
not foggy, day, when we were off the Grand Banks of
Newfoundland, that I noticed a considerable gathering of
birds resting on the water in the immediate path of the
ship. As we approached them I thought they looked like
shore birds, and as the vessel drew quite close to them
those immediately near it rose on wing and flew off to
right and left, and again alighted on the water among their
fellows. In the way in which they left the path of the
vessel they reminded me of similar flights of waterfowl
seen in Alaska. When the birds took wing they were at once
recognized as willets, and there must have been somewhere
near a thousand of them, not all packed together in a dense
clump on the water, but more or less scattered out, in
groups of forty, fifty, or a hundred, yet all fairly near
one another, and suggesting a single flock. They seemed to
leave the water reluctantly and gave me the impression that
they were weary.

_Courtship._--Very little seems to have been recorded about the courtship of the willet, but John T. Nichols has sent me the following notes:

On the shore of Wakulla County, Fla., in late March willets
were evidently about to nest, March 27 they were noticed
chasing one another in air, and holding the wings over
the back after alighting, the black and white pattern
displayed. The following mating behavior was observed
March 29 toward sunset. Out on a mud flat exposed by low
water two birds were standing. One stood directly behind
the other, waving its parti-colored wings over its back,
and ended by mounting the back of the front bird and
fluttering there. The performance was accompanied by a
tern-like series of _kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk_ calls.

_Nesting._--The eastern willet is decidedly a coastwise bird and it is seldom seen far from the coastal marshes, beaches, and islands. Its favorite nesting places are on sandy islands overgrown with grass, tall and thick enough to conceal its nest, or on dry uplands where similar conditions may be found in close proximity to marshes or the shore. In Nova Scotia I was too late to find nests, but Mr. Lewis (1920) writes:

I have occasionally searched for the nests or the young of
the willets, but without success until June 8, 1920, when
I found a nest with four eggs of this species, in an open
swale in an upland pasture, about a quarter of a mile from
the nearest salt marsh or salt water, at Arcadia, Yarmouth
County, Nova Scotia, on the western side of the Chetogue
River. The nest was near the junction of the River Road
with Argyle Street, and was about 150 yards from each of
those much-traveled highways, which were in full view from
the nest site. Several cattle occupied the pasture at
the time when the nest was found. The swale in which the
nest was placed was of considerable extent and was of the
kind preferred as a breeding place by Wilson’s snipe; in
fact, a pair of those birds were evidently nesting there.
The willet’s nest was a slight hollow in the damp ground,
lined with a few dead rushes. It was surrounded by growing
rushes, cinnamon fern, low blackberry bushes, and wild rose
bushes, and was well concealed.

Mr. Tufts (1925) says that “they often nest in the open pastures or on the rough boulder-strewn uplands at a considerable distance inland,” but all the nests that he found were “on low land close to the feeding grounds,” near the shore. One nest was located under a tangle of wild rose bushes in a pasture in Yarmouth County.

More typical nesting conditions are to be found on the coastal islands of Virginia and South Carolina. In the Bull’s Bay region of South Carolina we visited two islands, on May 22 and 23, 1915, on which willets were breeding. Most of the nests were on a sand-hill plain, back of the beach, which was overgrown with tufts of fine beach grass and with a few scattering clumps of myrtle bushes. The nests consisted of deep hollows in the sand in or under the tufts of grass, usually well concealed, and were well lined with bits of dry grass, sedges, or small sticks; the hollows measured 6 or 7 inches in diameter. A partially built nest contained only one egg, which was lying on the bare sand and was only partially surrounded by the nesting material; apparently material is added during the laying period and the nest is not completed until incubation begins. One nest was under a little dead, thorny bush, but well concealed, on a small, high spot on an open sandy reef, not far from the nests of oyster catchers and Wilson plover. Another nest, in a situation which was probably flooded at times, was built up 10 inches above the damp ground in a clump of thickly tufted sedges. H. B. Bailey (1876) says that, on Cobb Island, “the marshes are also favorite localities for breeding, and in this case the nests are more elaborate, being built up from the ground, which is wet at high tide.” I think, however, that the willet prefers to nest on dry ground.

Roger Tony Peterson writes to me that, among 11 nests found by him on the South Carolina coast, “five sets of eggs on one particular strip of beach were located on the open sand with no preparation at all made for a nest.” Another set was “in a very heavy, well-made nest of weeds and grass, out on the open sand, far from any grass or bushes.” All were very conspicuous.