140 THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 



inches; extent, seventeen inches; the bill is more than 

 two and a half inches long, fluted lengthwise, of a brown 

 color and black towards the tip, where it is very smooth 

 while the bird is alive, but soon after it is killed becomes 

 dimpled like the end of a thimble; crown, black, divided 

 by an irregular line of pale brown; another and broader 

 one of the same tint passes over each eye; from the bill to 

 the eye there is a narrow dusky line; neck and upper part 

 of breast, pale brown, variegated with touches of white 

 and dusky; chin, pale; back, deep velvety black, marbled 

 with waving lines of brown and broadly edged with huffy 

 white; wings, plain dusky; tail rounded, deep black, end- 

 ing in a bar of bright rusty brown, crossed with a narrow 

 waving line of black and tipped with white; belly, white; 

 sides barred with dusky ; legs and feet, pale ashy green ; 

 sometimes the whole thighs are barred with dusky and 

 white. The female differs in being more obscure in her 

 colors, the white on the back being less pure and the 

 black not so deei). 



The nests are mere depressions in the grass and bog. 

 The eggs are either three or four in number, of a clay or 

 brownish ashy color, with chocolate spots, more numer- 

 ous near the large end, and one and three-fifths by one 

 and two-fifths inches in size. They are placed with the 

 small end downward in the nest. 



The birds breed principally northward of New Jersey; it is 

 claimed by many ornithologists that a few remain in New 

 Jersey to breed. Some certainly do remain through the 

 summer, but they are in all probability either crippled or 

 improperly developed, thus being prevented from pur- 

 suing their flight further northward. The birds gener- 

 ally reach New Jersey between March 20 and May 10; 

 their return flight occurs in September and October. 



These birds at times make a noise which in the distance 

 sounds like the bleating of a goat and then again like the 

 drumming of a partridge. During the nesting season 

 their cry is huk-kuk-kiik-kuk-kuk. They rise from the 



