THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 177 



The birds breed in the eastern United States, as far 

 north as Massachusetts, and spend the winter in Cuba 

 and southward. They are not very plentiful in New Jer- 

 sey, where they arrive about the first of May and leave 

 about the first of October. 



Mabel Osgood Wright, in "Birdcraft," Macmillan & 

 Co., says of the Wood Thrush: "He is an exquisite vocal- 

 ist, the tones having a rare quality of rolling vibrance, 

 and, often as he utters his plaintive notes, each one full 

 and deliberate, the song seems like the music of a flute 

 and an aeolian harp strung in the trees. Uoli, he begins 

 and after pausing continues, aeolee, (the last syllable hav- 

 ing the harp quality), noU-iioJ i -aeoJee-Iee. First softly, 

 then modulating, reiterating sometimes for an hour to- 

 gether; but compassing in these few syllables the whole 

 range of pure emotion.'" 



The food of these birds consists of insects and berries. 



Tilt'itp. See Spotted Sandpiper. 

 Tinker. See Razor-billed Auk. 



Titlark^ or JRipit. — Length, six and one- third inches; 

 bill, half an inch, dark; white or buff line over eye; back, 

 brownish gray; breast and sides, buff' or buffy white, 

 streaked with dark slate on the sides of the throat and 

 across the breast; tail, brownish gray, the outer feather 

 with the terminal half white and the next slightly tipped 

 with white; wings, dark Inown, with a somewhat lighter 

 band across the middle; feet, brown. 



The nest is built on the ground and is composed of 

 grasses. The eggs are from four to six in number, of a 

 dull white thickly s])eckled with biown, and four-fifths by 

 three-fifths of an inch in size. 



The birds breed in the far north and in the winter go 

 south as far as the southern United States. They are 

 very abundant, generally in flocks in New Jersey, fi-om 



