i 



BIRDS OF NORTH AND MmDLE AMERICA. 219 



plumage and coloration, the neck adorned with a conspicuous erectile 

 ruff of elongated feathers, th.e loral and frontal regions naked (or 

 partially so) and papillose. Adult males variously colored, scarcely 

 two individuals being nearly alike in coloration; adult female grayish 

 brown with paler margins to feathers, passing into white on abdomen 

 and posterior underparts, the tertials and middle rectrices more or 

 less barred or transversely spotted with black or dusky. 



Range. — Chiefly Palaearctic or Eurasian, but occurring rarely in 

 North America. (Monotypic.) 



MACHETES PUGNAX (Linnaeus). 



RUFF. 



Adult male in summer. — Back and scapulars variegated with black, 

 gray, buffy, and whitish, the first predominating, the whitish in form 

 of irregular bars; wing-coverts grayish brown indistinctly margined 

 with paler, the secondaries similar but with narrow though distinct 

 edgings of white; primary coverts and primaries darker grayish 

 brown, indistinctly paler at tips (narrowly), their shafts white or 

 yellowish white; tertials broadly barred with black and grayish 

 brown, the latter intermixed with whitish; rump grayish brown, the 

 feathers with indistinct shaft-streaks of darker, and paler margins; 

 median upper tail-coverts blackish distaUy, narrowly barred with 

 pale-buffy, pale brownish gray, or duU whitish and tipped with brown- 

 ish gray, the lateral upper tail-coverts immaculate white; middle 

 rectrices brownish gray, broadly but indistinctly barred with dusky, 

 narrowly tipped with dull whitish or buffy, and with a rather large 

 subterminal spot of black, the lateral rectrices rather light plain 

 grayish brown; abdomen, under tail-coverts, axillars, and greater 

 part of under wing-coverts immaculate white. In coloration of the 

 head, neck, chest and breast, varying remarkably, scarcely two 

 specimens being nearly alike; the occipital tufts or "capo" usually 

 glossy black, ochraceous, or whitish, the "ruff" chestnut, glossy 

 black, buff, ochraceous, or whitish, and these colors maybe either 

 plain, streaked barred, minutely freckled, or otherwise marked;'' bill 

 yellowish orange passing into brownish or dusky terminally; papillae 

 of head reddish; -iris brown; legs and feet yellow (in life). 



Adult male in iointer.—Y]\.(iuva. and hindneck light grayish brown, 

 the former (at least on crown) narrowly streaked with darker; scapu- 

 lars, interscapulars, rump, median upper tail-coverts, and wing- 

 coverts grayish broAvn, the feathers darker centrally and with paler 

 margins, the greater wing-coverts tipped with white; sides of head and 

 neck, together with foreneck, chest, and sides, light grayish brown, 



« The adult males contained in the collection of the British Museum in 1896, num- 

 bering between tliirty and forty specimens, represented no less than fifteen distinct 

 types of coloration. (See Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896^ 504, 505. 



