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 in 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. 



Brantbird. See Turnstone. 

 Broadbill. See Greater Scaup. 

 Broidbill, Creek. See Lesser Scaup. 

 Brown Jflarlin. See Marbled Godwit. 



Brown Thrasher or Brown Thrush. Length, 

 eleven and one-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 much narrower 

 and the spots on the breast less. 



