THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 35 



a half feet; the female is somewhat smaller. Head, black; 

 back, brown gray, grayish brown at the edges; breast, 

 the upper part black and the lower part ashy gray; belly, 

 white and sides darker; tail, black with a great deal of 

 white; upper wing, black and white; under wing, brown- 

 ish gray, with some white; legs and feet, black. 



The nest is built on the ground, of grasses and mosses, 

 lined with down. The eggs are four in number, of a 

 creamy white color, two and three -fourths by one and 

 three-fourths inches in size. 



The birds breed somewhere up in the Arctic circle and 

 arrive in New Jersey on the fall flight about the first of 

 October, A few winter along the New Jersey coast, but 

 most of them go farther south, many wintering in Vir- 

 ginia. 



The principal food of the Brant is eel-grass. 



The Black Brant, which very much resembles the 

 above, but being much darker on the lower breast and 

 upper belly, is an exceedingly rare winter visitant, strag- 

 gling in from the west. 



Brantbirii. See Turnstone. 



Broadbill, See Greater Scaup. 



Brotulhill^ Creek, See Lesser Scaup. 



Broivn JfMarlin, See Marbled Godwit. 



Brown Thrasher or Brotrn Thrush, — Length, 

 eleven and a half inches ; extent, fourteen inches ; bill 

 one inch ; head and back, reddish brown ; breast, yellow- 

 ish white with spots of black ; belly, yellowish white ; 

 sides and tail, reddish brown, the former with spots of 

 black ; upper wing, reddish brown ; under wing, dusky ; 

 legs, dusky clay. The female may be distinguished from 

 the male by the white on the wing being nmch narrower 

 and the spots on the breast less. 



