t^ T H K RUFF. 



THE RUFF. {Tringa pugnax.) 



The Ruflf (says Mr. Wilson), no less than the family of 

 sandpipers, with which it is associated in the systems, ii 

 almost equally given to wandering, being found, according 

 to the season, dispersed in flocks throughout the principal 

 parts of the cold_and temperate climates of the northern 

 hemisphere. In spring they arrive in great numbers or th€ 

 coast of Holland, Germany, Flanders, and England ; thej 

 are equally abundant in Sweden, occur in Denmark, Norway 

 Finmark, and Iceland, and breed in the great desolate 

 marshes of Siberia and Lapland, as well as in milder latitudes. 



According to Skioldebrand, at Uleaborg, the capital of 

 Ostrobothnia, ihey arrive in the spring, in such vast flocks, 

 as almost to obscure the heavens, and resting on the floating 

 ice, or on the banks of the rivers, fill the air with their con- 

 fused cries; and the Euffs, contending for their mates, 

 appear like a pigmy army of pugilists. My friend, Mr. 

 Cooper, about three years ago, obtained a specimen of the 

 Buflf, from the shores of Long Island. From the rarity of 

 this occurrence, we can only consider the Rufi*, on the 

 American coasts, as an accidental straggler ] and their visits 

 are probably more common on the western than the eastern 

 side of the continent. 



The Rufi^s, like most of the birds, bred in high loreal 

 latitudes., are under the necessity of migrating to milder 

 slimates, at the approach of winter. These northern hosta 



