THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 171 



wild oats, although they also take insects and tadpoles. 

 Their flesh is delicate and highly esteemed for the table. 



Teal, CrreeU'Winged,. — Length, fourteen and a half 

 inches; extent, twenty-four inches; bill, one and one- 

 third inches, black; head, bay; sides of head, green; chin, 

 black; upper back, barred fine with lines of black and white; 

 lower back, dark slate; breast, light brown with black 

 spots; belly, white; sides, with white and black lines; tail, 

 brown; wings, slaty, a white bar near the bend and spot 

 of purplish black and rich green on the middle preceded 

 by a rusty bar; feet, gray. The female has the top of the 

 head dark slate with brown edges, the throat and sides of 

 the neck white with black spots and the back dark slate 

 edged with gray. The eggs are from six to twelve in 

 number, cream colored, and one and four-fifths by one 

 and one-fourth inches in size. The birds breed throughout 

 the northern United States and spend the winter south as 

 far down as Cuba. They are more plentiful than the pre- 

 ceding, especially in the spring and fall migrations, rare on 

 the coast and more numerous in large rivers. Their food 

 and flesh are similar to those of the preceding. 



Teeter. See Spotted Sandpiper. 



Tern, Black. — Length, ten inches; extent, twenty- 

 two inches; bill, one inch. In summer the back, wings 

 and tail are a slate color and the rest of the plumage 

 black; in the winter the under parts and forehead are 

 white and the back, wings and tail a light gray. The 

 nest is a closely woven and compact contrivance, made of 

 reeds and grasses in the marshes. The eggs are two oi' 

 three in number, of a light brown with darker brown 

 markings and one and one-third by one inch in size. 

 They breed through the northern interior of temperate 

 North America and spend the winter in the Gulf and 

 South Atlantic States. They occur in New Jersey only 



