M.irch, 1924. The Irish Naliiralist. ' 25 



NOTES ON SOME RUFFS IN THE ZOO. 



BY C. B. MOFFAT. 



As the breeding habits of the Ruff {Machetes pugnax, Linn.) 

 have been made the subject of a very exhaustive study by 

 ]\Ir. Edmund Selous^ on the strength of observations made 

 by him in Holland in the spring of 1906, I think some 

 notes on the conduct of four of these birds that were kept 

 in the Dublin Zoological Gardens in the spring of 1912 may 

 possess some little interest, as favouring perhaps a different 

 interpretation from that placed b}^ Mr. Selous on the facts 

 observed by him at the Dutch breeding-station. 



The conduct of a few birds observed in captivity cannot, 

 of course, pretend to a \ alue comparable with that of facts 

 gathered from wild birds in the field ; and I think it is 

 extremely unlikely that a fuller or better pictuie than 

 that given by Mr. Selous of the habits of the Ruffs and 

 Reeves at their breeding-quarters will ever be presented. 

 But in his whole-hearted advocacy of the Darwinian theory 

 of Sexual Selection it is possible that Mr. Selous has 

 overlooked the significance of some of the facts he himself 

 observed, such as the constancy with which each male 

 bird (or Ruff) kept to his own patch of ground, w^aiting 

 patiently and almost passively until some females (or 

 Reeves) chose (if they did choose) to visit him. ]\Ir. Selous 

 argued from this that the female was obviously the deciding 

 or selecting party ; and as he also found it to be commonly 

 the case that one Ruff would be visited by many Reeves 

 while a number of other Ruffs remained totally neglected, 

 he concluded that a fairly unanimous standard of taste 

 prevailed among the female birds, and that the greater 

 matrimonial happiness of the more fortunate among the 

 Ruffs w^as the natural result of their more attractive 

 appearance. 



The four birds of this species that w^re in the Zoo in 

 1912 were two Ruffs and tw^o Reeves. They wxre kept 

 in one of the open-air enclosures outside the Nesbit Aviary. 



1 Zool. (4) vols. X. and xi. 



