THE KUFF. . 375 



ters of the tringa, it lias been deemed safest to include the 

 ruff in a separate genus, the principal characters of which 

 may be said to be: tarsus elongated; beak as long as the 

 head, thin, straight, compressed at the base, then round, 

 with a blunt tip ; upper mandible longest, its tip rather bent 

 down over the point of the under mandible; nasal furrow 

 extending the whole length of the beak ; hinder part of the 

 back and rump dark at all seasons ; outer and middle toes 

 united at the base ; front toes fringed on the sides ; neck in 

 the male with an ornamental ruff during the breeding season ; 

 forms a very good link between tringa and totanus. 



198. MACHETES PTJGNAX, Cuv. Brushane. The Euff (male). 



Keeve (female). D. F. 



Male : length above 12 in.; wing 24 in. broad; from 

 carpus 7- in. ; tarsus 2 in. ; beak 1-i in. Female : 

 length 10 in.; wing 19 in. broad; from carpus Gin; 

 tarsus If in. ; beak If in. ; wing feathers blackish, with 

 the shaft of the first white ; the three outer tail feathers 

 of one colour, generally grey ; beak red or brown -yellow, 

 darker at the point, which in the winter is black ; legs 

 reddish or saffron yellow, in the young birds green. 

 Summer dress : the male is distinguished by a naked 

 face, covered with warty pimples, and a large ruff or cravat 

 of different colours, scarcely two birds being alike. It is 

 said (how proved I don't know) that the male bird has the 

 same coloured cravat every year. The female in the summer 

 has no cravat; head grey; neck and breast with blackish 

 spots ; back, black-brown, and shoulders with rusty or white- 

 grey feather edges. In the autumn and winter, both sexes 

 resemble each other, save in size (the cravat or ruff is laid 

 aside in July, when the face of the male becomes feathered) ; 

 crown of the head black, with rusty grey feather edges; 

 neck and breast rusty grey, with black spots ; back and 

 shoulders like the female in summer, but more grey. The 

 young bird is more rusty coloured than the old. Is common 

 in many parts during the summer, and goes far up into 

 Lapland. 



