34 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



from the strings. * * * Away he launches and the 

 meadow is all bespattered with melody." 



The food of the birds consists of insects, young com, 

 wild oats and reeds. It is the latter which brings the 

 birds in large flocks to the meadows along the Hacken- 

 sack and Delaware. Coming north the birds do a great 

 deal of damage to the oats and wheat in Virginia and go- 

 ing south they eat a great deal of rice in the Carolinas. 

 It is stated, on no very reliable authority, that these birds 

 did not migrate north until after rice cultivation had been 

 begun in the Carolinas; it is, however, pretty certain that 

 the rice fields materially increased the number of these 

 birds. 



Bob White, or Quail, — Length, nine inches; extent, 

 fourteen inches; bill, one-third of an inch; head, black, 

 and brown; back, red brown, sprinkled with ash and 

 black; breast, upper part reddish brown, lower part yel- 

 lowish white; belly, pale yellow white; tail, ash, sprinkled 

 with reddish brown; wings, plain dusky; legs, pale ash. 

 The female has the chin and sides of the head a yellowish 

 brown, whereas in the male the chin is pure white, bound- 

 ed by a band of black. 



The nest is usually built about the first of May on the 

 ground in grassy fields, usually at the bottom of a thick 

 tuft of grass; it is made of leaves and fine dry grasses, 

 partly covered above and with an opening on one side. 

 The eggs are from ten to twenty, pure white in color and 

 one and one-fifth by one inch in size. 



The birds inhabit the whole of the eastern United States, 

 as far west as Kansas and as far south as Georgia, but 

 have become quite scarce in thickly settled districts. 



The cry of the bird is Bob White. 



Its food consists of grain, seeds, insects and berries; it 

 is very fond of buckwheat and also of potato bugs. 



Brant. — Length, twenty-six inches; extent, three and 



