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S EMIPALMAT ED SANDP IPER.
Totanus semipalmatus, Temm.
Le Chevalier semi-palmé.
T h e celebrated Wilson having beautifully portrayed the history of this species, we have taken the liberty of
extracting rather largely from his valuable work, before which, however, we would state that it is on the
authority o f the continental naturalists that we have been induced to give a figure o f it in the present work.
M. Temminck informs us that it is accidentally found in the North o f Europe, but like ourselves, quotes from
Wilson an account of its food, manners, &c. We have also been favoured with an European-killed specimen
presented to us by Professor Lichtenstein o f Berlin ; 110 doubt therefore can exist as to the propriety of
admitting it into the Fauna o f this portion o f the globe, although America must be considered as its true
habitat.
This,” says Wilson, “ is one o f the most noisy and noted birds that inhabit our salt marshes in summer.
Its common name is the Willet, by which appellation it is universally known along the shores o f New York,
New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, in all o f which places it breeds in great numbers. It arrives from the
south on the shores o f the middle states about the 20th o f April or beginning of May ; and from that time to
the last o f July its loud and shrill reiterations o f pitt-will-willet, jnll-will-willet, resound almost incessantly
along the marshes, and may be distinctly heard at the distance o f more than half a mile. Their nests are
built on the ground, among the grass o f the salt marshes, and are composed o f wet rushes and coarse grass
forming a slight hollow or cavity in a tussock. This nest is gradually increased during the period o f laying
and sitting to the height o f five or six inches. The eggs are usually four in number, very thick at the great
end, tapering to a narrow point at the other, and o f a dark dingy olive, largely blotched with blackish
brown, particularly at the great end. The eggs, in every instance that has come under my observation, are
placed during incubation in an almost upright position, with the large end uppermost ; and this appears to
be the constant practice o f several other species o f birds that breed in these marshes. During the laying
season, the Crows are seen roaming over the marshes in search o f eggs, and wherever they come spread consternation
and alarm among the Willets, who in united numbers attack and pursue them with loud clamours.”
The Willet subsists chiefly on small shell-fish, marine worms, and aquatic insects, in search o f which it
regularly resorts to the muddy shores and flats at low water.
This species differs considerably in its summer and winter plumage, the latter being o f a pale dun colour
with darker shafts, and the former as follows :
Upper surface dark olive brown, each feather streaked down the centre and crossed with irregular lines o f
black, and numerously blotched with dull yellowish white ; wing-coverts greyish olive ; basal half o f the
primaries white, the remainder black ; secondaries white ; rump dark brown ; upper tail-coverts white
barred with olive ; tail pale olive crossed with bars o f dark brown ; chin white ; breast and flanks cream
colour transversely mottled with olive ; belly and vent white, the latter barred with olive ; tip o f the bill
black ; the base and the legs and feet pale lead colour.
We have figured two birds o f the natural size, one in the summer and the other in the winter plumage.