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.