RUFF 799 
Sandpipers , and outwardly! there is nothing, except the unequal 
size of the two sexes, to rouse suspicion of any abnormal peculiarity. 
But when spring comes all is changed. In a surprisingly short 
time the feathers clothing the face a the male are shed, and their 
place is taken by papillx or small caruncles of bright yellow or pale 
pink. From each side of his head sprouts a tuft of stiff curled 
feathers, giving the appearance of long ears, while the feathers of 
the throat change colour, and beneath and around it sprouts the- 
frill or ruff alr eady mentioned. The feathers which form this 
remarkable adornment, almost unique among birds, are, like those 
RUFF. 
of the “ ear-tufts,” stiff and incurved at the end, but much longer— 
measuring more than two inches. They are closely arrayed, capable 
of depression or elevation, and form a shield to the front of the 
breast impenetrable by the bill of a rival. More extraordinary than 
this, from one point of view, is the great variety of coloration that 
obtains in these temporary outgrowths. It has often been said 
that no one ever saw two Ruffs alike. That is perhaps an over- 
statement ; but, considering the really few colours that the birds 
exhibit, the variation is something marvellous, so that fifty examples 
or more may be compared without finding a very close resemblance 
1 Internally there is a great difference in the form of the posterior margin of 
the sternum, as long ago remarked by Nitzsch. 
