RUFF. 265 



April or during the first half of May. Its haunts during 

 the breeding season are in swamps and marshes, wet 

 ground covered with rough hummocks of coarse grass 

 and tufts of sedge rushes and the Hke. The Ruff is 

 polygamous, one male pairing with several females, and 

 taking no share in nesting duties ; consequently we find 

 this species more or less gregarious until the hilling or 

 pairing season is over, when the hens or Reeves go off 

 to incubate their eggs alone. During the mating season 

 the birds congregate at chosen mounds and the males 

 fight for the possession of the females, but as this portion 

 of their economy does not relate very closely to the nest 

 and eggs we may dismiss it without further notice. The 

 nest of the Reeve is made on the ground in the swamps, 

 usually in the centre of a tuft of sedge or coarse grass. 

 It is merely a hollow, lined with a few bits of withered 

 herbage and dead leaves. The female is a close sitter, 

 but is not very demonstrative at the nest. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement: 

 The eggs of the Ruff, or as we might with more pro- 

 priety say Reeve, are four in number. They vary from 

 greenish-gray to grayish-green in ground colour, spotted 

 and blotched with reddish-brown, and with underlying 

 markings of grayish-brown. As a rule most of the 

 markings are on the larger end of the ^gg, and they are 

 bolder there than elsewhere and often confluent. Aver- 

 age measurement, 17 inch in length, by 12 inch in 

 breadth. Incubation, performed by the female, is said 

 by Tiedemann to last sixteen days. 



Diagnostic characters: The eggs of the Ruff are 

 characteristic, and not readily confused with those of any 

 other species breeding in the British Islands, with the 

 one possible exception of those of the Redshank. From 

 them, however, they may be distinguished by their grayer 

 or greener ground colour (not so yellow). 



