574 SCOLOPACID.E. 



Tringa ,, Becasseau comhalant, Temm. Man. d'Ornilli. vol. ii. j). 631. 



Machetes ,, Combatant variable, ,, Siippf. pt. iv. p. 41 1, 



INIacuetes. Generic Characters. — Bill straight, rather slender, as long as 

 the head, with the tip dilated and smooth ; upper mandible laterally sulcated 

 for four fifths of its length ; culmen rounded. Nostrils basal, lateral, linear, 

 placed in the commencement of the groove. Wings long, and pointed, with 

 the first and second quill-feathers of equal length, and the longest in the wing. 

 Legs long and slender, the tibia naked for a considerable space above the tarsal 

 joint, t'eet four toed ; three before and one behind ; the outer toe united to the 

 middle one by a membrane as far as the first joint ; the inner toe free ; hind 

 toe short, articulated upon the tarsus, with the tip of the claw barely touching 

 the ground. In plumage, the head and neck of the male, during the breeding 

 season, are adorned with long plumose feathers springing from the occiput and 

 throat ; which, when raised form a large ruff or shield around the head ; and 

 the face of the male bird, during the same period, is covered with small fleshy 

 warts or papilla;. Selby. 



The Ruff differs in so many points from the species in- 

 cluded in the genera Totanus^ Scolopax, and Tringa, that 

 the generic division and term, Machetes,* in reference to its 

 pugnacious habits, proposed for it by Baron Cuvier, in the 

 Edition of his Regno Animal, dated 1817, has been admitted 

 by many systematic Avriters, and adopted by M. Temminck 

 in the fourth Supplementary Part of his Manual, as already 

 quoted. The most marked distinctions of this species, which 

 up to the present time is the only one of the genus known, 

 are, the periodical assumption by the males of the RufF about 

 the neck, which has led to the English name : that scarcely 

 any two of these males can be found of the same colour, 

 which is very unusual among wild birds, while the females 

 are uniform in colour, or nearly so : that the males are poly- 

 gamous, and about one third larger than the females, in both 

 of which points the Ruffs differ from the characters of the 

 genera named. 



The Ruff, like several of the species lately described, may 

 be considered only as a summer visiter to this country, 

 making its appearance in April and departing again in au- 

 tumn, at which time the young birds of the year, in small 



* Pugnator. 



