SANDPIPERS AND ALLIED SPECIES. 163 



Their nest is a slight hollow, generally with some fragments 

 of vegetables, and they lay four large pyriform, spotted eggs. 

 Their flesh is savoury, and held in estimation, most of them 

 passing in the markets as snipes. 



Fig. 15. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE BRITISH GENERA AND SPECIES. 



GENUS I. MACHETES. RUFF. 



Bill scarcely longer than the head, straight, slender, 

 somewhat flexible, with the ridge convex, flattened toward the 

 end, the nasal groove extending nearly to the end, the tip 

 slightly enlarged, obtuse. Nostrils small, linear, pervious, 

 basal, close to the margin. Legs rather long, very slender; toes 

 four, first very small and elevated, anterior rather long, third 

 and fourth connected by a basal web. Wings long, pointed ; 

 tail short, doubly emarginate. The male, in the breeding 

 season, assumes a great development of plumage on the 

 neck, and has the face tuberculated. 



1. Machetes pugnax. Common Ruff. Male, in winter, 

 with the upper parts variegated with brownish-black and 

 light red, the throat and abdomen white, the fore-neck and 

 part of the breast pale reddish-brown, spotted with dark 

 brown. Female similar, but with the upper parts lighter, 

 the lower more grey. Male, in summer, with numerous 

 fleshy tubercles on the face, two occipital tufts, and a very 

 large ruff of elongated feathers on the neck ; the colours of 



