238 BRITISH BIRDS' NESTS. 



Time. — February, March, April, and May; the 

 laying season varying according to the character 

 of the weather. 



Beuiarls. — Resident. Notes, craaw. Local and 

 other names : AVhite-faced Crow, Craa. Gregarious, 

 and a close sitter. 



RUFF. 



Description of Parent Birds. — Length about 

 twelve and a half inches. Bill long, straight, 

 rather slender, and brown. Irides dusky brown. 

 The bird varies very considerably in j^lumage, one 

 eminent authority having examined two hundred 

 specimens and only found two alike. Yarrell says : 

 " The head, the whole of the ruff or tippet (long 

 plumes growing on the head and neck, and capable 

 of being raised so as to form a kind of shield), and 

 the shoulders of a shining purple-black, transversely 

 barred with chestnut ; scapulars back, lesser wing- 

 coverts, and some of the tertials, pale chestnut 

 speckled and tipped with black ; greater wing- 

 coverts nearly uniform ash-brown ; quill-feathers 

 brownish-black, with white shafts ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts white ; tail feathers ash brown, varied 

 with chestnut and black ; the feathers of the breast, 

 below the ruff and on the sides, chestnut, tipped 

 with black ; belly, vent, and under tail-coverts 

 white, with an occasional spot of dark brown ; legs 

 and toes pale yellow-brown ; claws black." 



The female is about two inches less in length, 

 lacks the ruff or tij)pet altogether, and although 

 not differing much in other plumage, is said to be 

 more uniform in colour as a sex. 



Situation and Locality. — In a tuft or tussock of 

 some kind of coarse vegetation growing in some 



