MACHETES PUGNAX : THE RUFF OR REEVE. 243 



The nest is made in a field, pasture or meadow, often 

 at a considerable distance from any water. It is usually a 

 mere depression in the ground, lined with a few blades of 

 grass, but sometimes a good deal of a nest is constructed 

 of hay and moss, particularly in the North. The eggs 

 are usually four in number, pointedly pyriform in shape, 

 of a clay color or pale creamy-brown, heavily blotched 

 with blackish-brown and neutral tint, measuring about 

 1.30 X i.oo, but very variable in size and in the precise 

 pattern of the markings. 



THE RUFF OR REEVE. 

 MACHETES PUGNAX (Linn.) Cuv. 



Chars. Bill straight, about as long as head, longer than tarsus, 

 gape reaching back of base of culmen ; outer and middle toe 

 webbed, inner cleft; tarsus longer than middle toe and claw. 

 Tail about half as long as wings, barred. In the breeding season, 

 face of male beset with yellow warts, and neck ornamented with 

 a frill of extravagant feathers, endlessly varied in colors ; female 

 lacking these ornaments. Above, varied with black, brown, buff 

 and chestnut ; sides of the rump white ; under parts white ; quills 

 dusky, with white shafts ; wing-coverts ashy-brown ; bill blackish, 

 flesh-colored at base ; legs dingy yellow. Length about 12.00; 

 wing, 7.00; tail, 300; bill, 1.50 ; tarsus, 2.00. Female smaller. 



This is a widely distributed old world bird, occasion- 

 ally straggling to America, there being various instances 

 of its capture in this country, and especially in New 

 England. One of the earliest of these records is given 

 by Mr. G. N. Lawrence (Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., N. Y., v, 

 1852, p. 220) : a specimen from Long Island, apparently 

 the same as that alluded to by Cassin, in Baird's B. of 

 N. A., 1858, p. 737. Mr. G. A. Boardman's catalogue of 



