RUFF. , 127 
blotched with darker brown ; and, as usual in this class of birds, 
are generally four in number. 
201. BAR-TAILED GODWIT—(Limosa rufa). 
Common Godwit, Grey Godwit, Red Godwit, Godwit Snipe, 
Red-breasted Snipe.—Of much the same habits as the last, only 
not remaining in this country to breed, and consequently occur 
ring much more frequently in winter than in spring, and not at 
ali in summer. As not nesting with us, no space can be conceded 
here for a notice of its eggs and nest. 
202. RUEFE—(Machetes puguac). 
Female, Reeve.—Time was, and not so very long ago either, 
when one fenman could take six dozen of these birds in a single 
day. Now, I fear, he would scarcely get that number in an 
entire season. The Ruff is, however, still known to breed 
annually in some of the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. 
The variety of plumage, no less than the very remarkable ruff or 
feathery appendage about the neck of the male in the breeding 
season, is quite sufficient to make this a very conspicuous bird 
among our truly native birds. Scarcely any two males in an 
assemblage of some dozeus can, in some cases, be picked out as 
possessing exactly the same plumage. The breeding habits, or 
some of them, observed in this bird are also very characteristic. 
His Latin name, as given above, simply mears “ pugnacious 
warrior,” and verily he is as thorough a lover of battle as any 
knight-errant of the middle ages, or fierce Northern sea-rover of 
four or five centuries earlier. They do not pair, and therefore 
fight for the possession of the females, and they have spots, 
known to the fenmen by the name of Hi//s, which are as much 
the scenes of universal challenge and battle as ever the stated 
“lists” of the old days of tournament or playing at battle. 
This habit of theirs facilitates the process of capture very 
