RUFF 105 



its escape by diving several times, and then concealing itself among 

 water-plants, uttering, during the pursuit, most piercing cries of terror. 

 Hilly ground near water forms the favourite nesting-site of the species ; 

 the nest itself being a sparsely lined hollow amid a tussock of grass 

 or among the heather or other herbage. In Scotland the eggs are 

 generally laid in the latter part of May, but in Lapland not till well 

 on in June ; this, by the way, being rather difficult to reconcile with 

 the statement as to the occasional return of greenshanks from the 

 north to Ireland in the latter month. In ground-colour the somewhat 

 glossy eggs vary from cream to pale buff, often tinged with green ; 

 the rich brown or faintly rufous markings taking the form of spots, 

 streaks, and blotches, of which the latter tend to form a cap at the 

 larger end, in addition to the underlying markings of faint purple. 

 From a fraction less to a fraction in excess of 2 inches is their usual 

 length. 



The American lesser yellowshank and the greater yellowshank are 

 referred to on p. 103. 



Pylj- Following the course pursued in the case of the 



(Pavoneella blackcock, the name of the male bird is taken in 

 puffnax) ^^^ instance of the species now claiming attention as 



the specific designation, although many ornithologists 

 prefer to use the combined names — ruff and reeve — of the two sexes. 

 The practical disappearance of the ruff as a breeding-species is a loss 

 to the British bird-fauna almost, if not quite, as great as that of the 

 bustard ; for these birds are remarkable and interesting from three 

 distinct points of view : firstly, the strange difference between the two 

 sexes during the breeding-season; secondly, the extraordinary individual 

 variation of the males, or ruffs properly so called, of which scarcely 

 any two are alike ; and, thirdly, the pugnacious habits of the cocks at 

 the commencement of the breeding-season. It was from these fighting 

 propensities that the ruff was long known in ornithological works as 

 Macheles pugiiax, a name which, on account of priorit}', has had to give 

 way to the perhaps better title of Pavoneella piignax — better on account 

 of the fact that it alludes to the wonderful breeding-plumage of the 

 cocks (by the somewhat fanciful title of " peacock-like "), as well as 

 in retaining reference to their characteristic love of combat. Although 

 drainage and the spread of cultivation were apparently the chief causes 

 which led to the disappearance of the ruff as a regular breeding-species 

 from its British haunts, the wholesale capture of these birds for the 

 table in former days seems also to have been an important factor in 



