RUNNER—SADDLE-BACK 801 
every feather on his body standing up and quivering ; but he seems as if 
he were afraid of coming too near his mistress, If she flies off, he starts 
up in an instant to arrive before her at the next place of alighting, and 
all his actions are full of life and spirit. But none of his spirit is 
expended in care for his family. He never comes to see after an enemy. 
In the [Lapland] marshes, a Reeve now and then flies near with a 
scarcely audible ka-ka-kuk ; but she seems a dull bird, and makes no 
noisy attack on an invader.” 
Want of space forbids a fuller account of this extremely inter- 
esting species. Its breeding-grounds extend from Great Britain ! 
across northern Europe and Asia; but the birds become less 
numerous towards the east. They winter in India, reaching even 
Ceylon, and Africa as far as the Cape of Good Hope. The Ruff 
also occasionally visits Iceland, and there are several well-authen- 
ticated records of its occurrence on the eastern coast of the United 
States, while an example is stated (Jbis, 1875, p. 332) to have been 
received from the northern part of South America. 
RUNNER, a local name for the Water-RAIL (p. 763). 
SACRUM, see SKELETON. 
SADDLE-BACK, in Britain and North America, a local name 
for the adult of either of the Black-backed GULLS, Larus marinus and 
fuscus ; but in New Zealand applied to Creadion, a genus founded in 
1816 by Vieillot (Analyse, p. 34) of which the Sturnus carunculatus 
of Gmelin, based on the 
Wattled Stare of Latham 
(Gen. Synops. iii. p. 9, pl. 
36) is usually considered 
the type.2 Its real affinity 
must be regarded as doubt- 
ful; for, like several other 
forms of the New-Zealand 
Region, it does not enter rf 
readily into any of the recognized Families of Birds, and thus has 
been placed among the Sturnidx or Corvidx, while it very possibly 
Creapion. (From Buller.) 
1 In England of late years it has been known to breed only in one locality, 
the name or situation of which it is not desirable to publish. 
2 This is not to be confounded with the Anthochera carunculata, which has 
also been called Creadion carunculatus (Vieillot, Encycl. Méthod. ii. p. 874) and 
is a HONEY-SUCKER. 
51 
