When William Brewster (1887) described and named the western willet he characterized it as:

Differing from S. semipalmata in being larger, with a longer, slenderer bill; the dark markings above fewer, finer, and fainter, on a much paler (grayish-drab ground); those beneath duller, more confused or broken, and bordered by pinkish salmon, which often spreads over or suffuses the entire underparts, excepting the abdomen. Middle tail feathers either quite immaculate or very faintly barred.

It is a bird of the western interior; its main breeding grounds are in the Great Plains regions of the Northern States, west of the Mississippi River, and the central Provinces of Canada. Nearly all recent writers have recorded it as breeding on the coasts of Louisiana and Texas, an oft-repeated error. All the breeding birds that I have shot on the coasts of these two States, in May and June, were clearly referable to the eastern form. And I have been unable to find any specimens of inornata in collections that could be classed as breeding birds from these States. If the western willet breeds in Texas at all it must be on the plains or prairies of the interior. But it seems hardly likely that it would have a breeding range so widely separated from the northern range as outlined below. The eastern willet is strictly a coastwise bird and breeds, or did formerly, all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. On the other hand, the western willet is just as strictly a bird of the inland prairies and plains during the breeding season.

Spring.—The main migration route seems to be northward through the Mississippi Valley, chiefly in April; most of the birds are on their breeding grounds by the first of May or earlier and are laying eggs before the end of that month. Birds which winter in South Carolina and Florida probably join this route by an overland flight. There is a northward migration through the interior valleys of California to breeding grounds west of the Rocky Mountains, and probably some birds cross these mountains to the interior plains.

Nesting.—We found western willets very common about the lakes in the prairie regions of North Dakota and Saskatchewan; but owing to their habit of flying a long distance to meet the intruder and making a great fuss everywhere but near their nests, we succeeded in finding only one nest. This was on the higher portion of the open prairie, a long way from any water, near Big Stick Lake, Saskatchewan. The nest was a hollow in the ground, measuring 7 by 6 inches in diameter and 3 inches deep, lined with grasses and dry weeds. It was in plain sight in short grass; a few scattered dead weeds were standing around it, but no long grass. It contained three fresh eggs on June 14, 1906. Ernest T. Seton (Thompson, 1890) found a nest in Manitoba “which was placed in a slight hollow, shaded on one side by the skull of a buffalo and on the other by a tuft of grass,” on an alkali plain.

The western willet breeds commonly in Boxelder County, Utah. Three sets of eggs in my collection, taken there on May 7, 13, and 16, 1916, by the Treganzas, came from nests described as slight depressions in short marsh grass; one was near an alkali flat, one near a water runway, and one on a partially grass-grown dike.

This bird is a rare, or very local, breeder in California. J. Van Denburgh (1919) reports five nests found on “a partially flooded mountain meadow” in Lassen County on June 1 and 6, 1918. “The nests were made of pieces of weeds rather carelessly built up on the mud. Some were found where the water was a few inches deep and some where the mud was drying.”

Eggs.—The eggs of the western willet are indistinguishable from those of the eastern bird. There is a slight average difference in length, but the measurements widely overlap. The measurements of 56 eggs average 54.1 by 37.6 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 58.1 by 39.4, 50.5 by 39.7, and 54.9 by 35 millimeters.

Plumages.—The sequence of plumages and molts is the same for both races, but juvenal western birds are somewhat paler than eastern birds, and they have less barring on the tail feathers or none at all.

Fall.—From its breeding grounds in the interior the western willet migrates in three main directions to the seacoasts, almost due east to the Atlantic coast of New York and New England, southeast and south to the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts and southwest to the California coast. Probably the birds which breed east of the Rocky Mountains take the easterly and southerly routes and those which breed west of these mountains migrate to California. Most of the willets which we get in Massachusetts in August are immature western willets; I have never seen an adult. These young birds apparently come from the Great Lakes region, where they have been recorded in Illinois and Ohio and as far north as Toronto, Ontario. John T. Nichols says in his notes:

Along the bays and marshes of the south shore of Long Island the willet is a regular late-summer migrant in small numbers varying from year to year. Southbound shore birds of other species are now following this coast to the westward, but a large majority of the willet are moving in the opposite direction; that is, from west to east. Its maximum flight seems to come in the beginning of August, and a peak of abundance for the species was reached in 1923. At Mastic on August 4, 1923, 14 willet were counted passing west to east in 3 flocks during 2½ hours’ observation.

I have examined a number of specimens of these Long Island fall-migration willet, which have all been in the grey unmarked plumage of birds of the year (which I would not undertake to distinguish from adult fresh winter plumage), and remarkably uniform in size. Their bills varied scarcely at all in dimensions (slightly over 2¼ inches), being decidedly too long for the short-billed Virginia breeding bird, but much too short for the long-billed bird from the Dakotas (unless its young of the year are uniformly short-billed).

Winter.—Western willets mingle in winter with their eastern relatives on the South Atlantic and Gulf coast from Florida to Texas; they are especially abundant in Texas. They also winter abundantly from the coast of California southward. Bradford Torrey (1913) saw them, mixed with marbled godwits, near San Diego, in such numbers that he—

mistook them at first for a border of some kind of herbiage. Thousands there must have been; and when they rose at my approach they made something like a cloud; gray birds and brown birds so contrasted in color as to be discriminated beyond risk of error, even when too far away for the staring white wing patches of the willets to be longer discernible.

Mrs. Florence M. Bailey (1916) has well described their habits, as beach birds at this season, as follows:

In the flocks of brown godwits the few gray willets looked small. They fed in the same way as the godwits, though their bills were shorter and they could not probe so deep, but they ran their bills ahead of them through the wet sand, probed as far as they could reach, and then trotted back before the oncoming waves. A thoughtless one sat down just at the edge of the water line one day, its back toning in with the sand, its long legs stretched out before it; but soon after it was comfortably settled up came the foam and it had to bend forward on its tarsus, raise itself, and flee up the beach. I often saw one resting, standing on one leg, or sitting at ease with white rump showing. When stretching the black of the wings showed effectively as it does both when the birds fly up and when they alight with wings raised over the back. Willet, willet, they often called as they went.

DISTRIBUTION

Range.—United States and southern Canada (casually Alaska), south to northern South America.

Breeding range.—North to Oregon (Fort Klamath and Camp Harney); Montana (Bozeman); Alberta (probably Edmonton and Buffalo Lake); Saskatchewan (probably Quill Lake and Indian Head); Manitoba (Moose Mountain and Turtle Mountains); North Dakota (Cando and Larimore); Minnesota (Herman and Madison); and probably formerly Illinois (Belvidere and Glen Ellyn). East to probably formerly Illinois (Glen Ellyn). South to probably formerly Illinois (Glen Ellyn); Iowa (probably Newton and formerly Boone); Nebraska (Long Pine, Kennedy, Garden County, and Morrill County); Wyoming (probably Big Piney); Utah (Parleys Park and Salt Lake); and northern California (Beckwith). West to northern California (Beckwith, Grasshopper Valley, Alturas, and Goose Lake); and Oregon (probably Tule Lake and Fort Klamath). Non-breeding birds have been observed in summer as far south as Lower California (Mazatlan and San Quintin Bay); Colorado (Barr); Florida (Pensacola); and Alabama (Petit Bois Island).

Winter range.—North to California (Humboldt Bay); Texas (Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Rockport, and Refugio County); probably Louisiana; and Florida (Amelia Island). East to Florida (Amelia Island, Dummitts, and the Florida Keys); Tamaulipas (Tampico); probably Honduras (San Pedro); Ecuador (Bay of Santa Elena); and Peru (Tumbez). South to Peru (Tumbez); and the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle). West to the Galapagos Islands (Albemarle and Abingdon); Costa Rica (Lepanto); Guerrero (Acapulco); Nyarit (San Bias); Lower California (San Quintin); and California (San Diego, La Jolla, Morro Bay, San Francisco, Bodega Bay, and Humboldt Bay).

Spring migration.—Early dates of arrival are: Arkansas, Osceola, March 29; Missouri, Stotesbury, April 8, and St. Louis, April 27; Illinois, Quincy, April 5, and Big Lake, April 29; Iowa, Cedar Rapids, April 2, Emmetsburg, April 21, and Keokuk, April 30; Wisconsin, Heron Lake, April 10, and Waseca, April 10; Minnesota, Lanesboro, April 26; Kansas, Manhattan, April 28, and McPherson, April 30; Nebraska, Niobrara, April 26, Neligh, May 1, and Valentine, May 5; South Dakota, Pitrodie, April 25, and Forestburg, April 28; North Dakota, Charlson, May 1, Jamestown, May 1, and Harrisburg, May 2; Manitoba, Treesbank, April 30; Saskatchewan, Indian Head, April 26, Wiseton, May 2, and Eastend, May 7; Colorado, Durango, April 15, Barr, April 20, and Baca County, April 28; Utah, Great Salt Lake, April 12; Wyoming, Cokeville, April 26, and Cheyenne, April 30; Montana, Lewiston, May 2, and Billings, May 4; Oregon, Narrows, April 15; and Alberta, Flagstaff, April 26, Vagreville, April 28, and Alliance, April 29.

Late dates of spring departure are: Florida, Indian Rocks, May 6; Alabama, Coden, May 17; Tamaulipas, Tampico, April 11; Texas, Brownsville, April 23, and Texas City, May 13; Lower California, Tres Marias Islands, April 8, and Cerros Island, April 18; and Nyarit, San Blas, April 24, and Los Penas Island, May 5.

Fall migration.—Early dates of arrival in the fall are: Lower California, San Quintin, August 8; Arizona, San Bernardino Ranch, August 13; New Mexico, Carlsbad, August 16, and Capitan Mountains, August 28; Oklahoma, Yarnaby, August 9; Texas, Padre Island, August 20; and Tehuantepec, San Mateo, August 6. Western willets also are of fairly regular occurrence in fall migration on the Atlantic coast, specimens having been collected in Massachusetts, Newburyport, August 5, and Boston, August 8; Connecticut, Stony Creek, August 15, and West Haven, August 26; Rhode Island, Quonochontaug, August 5; and New York, Amityville, August 14, and Hempstead Bay, August 15.

Late dates of fall departure are: Oregon, Yaquina Bay, October 1; Montana, Terry, September 8; Idaho, Rupert, October 20; Nevada, Carson River, October 13; Arizona, San Bernardino Ranch, September 2; Wyoming, Yellowstone Park, September 13; New Mexico, Jicarilla Apache Reservation, September 13; Saskatchewan, Redberry, September 2; North Dakota, Dawson, September 17, and Harrisburg, October 3; Nebraska, Long Pine, September 10, and Lincoln, September 29; Iowa, Cerro Gordo County, September 2, and Keokuk, October 27; Illinois, Chicago, September 30; and Connecticut, West Haven, September 3, and once in October.

Casual records.—In spite of its regular occurrence on the Atlantic coast, the western willet has been detected only on a few occasions in the interior States east of the Mississippi River. There appear to be several records for Ohio from April 30 (Oberlin) to November 2 (Bay Point); one for Indiana, Millers, August 14, 1897; and one for Michigan, Ann Arbor, May, 1889. One was taken July 20, 1898 at Toronto, Ontario, and four other specimens without data are presumed to be from the same locality (Fleming). Other casual occurrences are: Washington, Seattle, July 23, 1922, and Tacoma, September 6, 1913; British Columbia, Clover Point, August 18, 1898; probably Yukon, Lake Marsh, July 2, 1899; and Alaska, Lynn Canal (Hartlaub).

Egg dates.—Utah: 32 records, April 5 to May 21; 16 records, May 4 to 14. Saskatchewan and North Dakota: 19 records, May 8 to June 22; 10 records, May 23 to June 7. Washington to California: 9 records, May 8 to June 16.