62 SHORE BIRDS OF XORTH AMERICA. 



PAVONCELLA PUGNAX (Linn.}. 

 European Ruff. 



Adult male (spring plumage) : Feathers of the head and neck, elongated, forming a wide 

 collar or ruff, generally white and huff; rest of upper parts variegated with buff, black, dull 

 white, and ochre; primaries, dark brown, with white shafts; under parts, white, heavily 

 marked with blackish brown on the breast and sides; face covered with yellowish tubercles; 

 bill, dark brown, lighter at the base; iris, dark brown; legs, brownish yellow. 



Length, 12.50; wing, 7; tail, 2.70; tarsus, 2; bill, 1.55. 



Adult female (Reeve): No ruff, as in the male; head and neck, sandy "brown, mottled 

 faintly with dark brown ; upper parts variegated with black and brown, and tinge of reddish ; 

 under parts, dull white, mottled on the breast and sides with brown. The rest as in the male. 



Male (winter plumage) : Lacking the ruff and tubercles on the face; plumage resembles 

 the female. The specimens figured iu the plate represent two adult males and a female. The 

 variation of the coloration of the plumes of the former is very great; the ruff may be black, 

 white, or chestnut barred, and banded in various ways, or plain white, but generally showing 

 a tinge of buff or black. 



The European Ruff has been taken a number of times in Eastern North 

 America. Specimens have been recorded from Long Island, Massachusetts, 

 Maine, Ohio, and elsewhere. (Coues, Key to N. A. Bds , p. (541.) 



