106 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



remaining here from the first of May to the first of 

 September. 



The song is considered by many finer than that of the 

 former, being more dulcet in tone and less shrill; its song 

 season is however very brief. 



The food consists chiefly of insects, which it frequently 

 gathers from fruit blossoms without doing the least in- 

 jury to the blossoms; it is fond of cabbage worms, rose- 

 wings and beetles, and also feeds on berries. 



Osprey^ or Fish Mawk.—Ltength, twenty-two inches; 

 extent, five feet, two inches; the female is two inches 

 larger; bill, bluish black. The upper parts area dark slate 

 color, with an admixture of white in the head and neck 

 and many of the feathers of the back edged with white; 

 the tail is tipped with white and crossed by bands of 

 brown- the under parts are white. The females have 

 more or less brownish spots across the breast and these 

 markings are also at times found in the males. The legs 

 and feet are light blue. 



The nest is an exceedingly bulky contrivance, generally 

 found in a tree, from fifteen to fifty feet from the ground, 

 but also occasionally on the ground; it is built of sticks, 

 reeds, cornstalks and wet turf, lined with salt meadow 

 hay and seaweed. The eggs are from two to four in 

 number, two and three-fourths by one and three-fourths 

 inches in size; they are of very different colors, generally 

 a creamy white with brown spots, but at times also a 

 dull white or a light brown. 



The birds breed throughout temperate and tropical 

 America and in winter frequent the coast of the southern 

 Atlantic states. They appear in New Jersey along the 

 coast shortly after the middle of March and leave again 

 about the middle of October; they are more numerous in 

 the southern part of the state than in the northern. 



Their food consists excUisively of fish, which they gen- 

 erally take alive from the water, frequently diving after 



