

THE RUFF. 



MACHETES PUGNAX. 



Male in Spring Face covered with yellowish warty pimples: back of the 

 head with a tuft of long feathers on each side ; throat furnished with a 

 ruff of prominent feathers ; general plumage mottled with ash, black, brown, 

 reddish white, and yellowish, but so variously, that scarcely two specimens 

 can be found alike ; bill yellowish orange. Male in Winter Face covered 

 with feathers ; ruff absent ; under parts white ; breast reddish, with brown 

 spots ; upper plumage mottled with black, brown, and red ; bill brownish. 

 Length twelve and a half inches. Female, "The Reeve" Long feathers of 

 the head and ruff absent ; upper plumage ash-brown, mottled with black 

 and reddish brown ; under parts greyish white ; feet yellowish brown. Length 

 ten and a half inches. In 'both sexes, tail rounded, the two middle feathers 

 barred ; the three lateral feathers uniform in colour. Eggs olive, blotched 

 and spotted with brown. 



BOTH the systematic names of this bird are descriptive of 

 its quarrelsome propensities : machetes is Greek for " a 

 warrior," pugnax Latin for "pugnacious." Well is the 

 title deserved ; for Ruffs do not merely fight when they 

 meet, but meet in order to fight. The season for the in- 

 dulgence of their warlike tastes is spring; the scene, a 

 rising spot of ground contiguous to a marsh ; and here all 



