RUFF. 625 



suggestive of their having nested in the locality during the 

 summer of that year.* 



At the present day it occurs on the spring migration 

 from mid-April to late in May, very sparingly, and is much 

 more numerous during the autumnal passage southward in 

 August and September, when immigrants from the Continent 

 are frequently noted on the coast, especially at the Tees and 

 Humber estuaries. A detailed list of these occurrences 

 would be tedious to particularize ; it is met with in more 

 or less numbers every autumn, and during September 1876 

 a flock of fourteen, three of which were killed, was seen near 

 Redcar. It was fairly common at Spurn in 1891, whilst ten 

 were noticed at the Teesmouth in August and September 1903. 



Inland it is much rarer than on the coast, though it has been 

 reported from Wensleydale in 1873 ; in Upper Teesdale it 

 is occasionally killed by Grouse shooters ; at Pilmoor, near 

 Thirsk, one was procured in October 1879, an< ^ three at 

 the same time near Northallerton ; a pair was shot in 

 September 1902, at Deighton, near Welbury ; at Beverley it is 

 a fairly regular visitor in spring and autumn, and is occasion- 

 ally obtained at East Cottingwith and Scampston. In the 

 West Riding it is reported from Wighill Ings, Newton Kyme, 

 Bilton, Harrogate, Wakefield, and Barnsley. 



In the York Museum is a large case of Ruffs and Reeves, 

 in the full glory of their nuptial dress, from the Strickland 

 collection, and two pairs of each sex in similar plumage, 

 also obtained in Yorkshire, are in the Chester Museum. 



The wintering of the Ruff was recorded by the late J. 

 Cordeaux (Nat. 1889, pp. 44-129), specimens being shot on the 

 7th and 20th January in that year at Sunk Island and Holly m, 

 near Withernsea; the observer being under the impression 

 that these were the first instances of such an occurrence in 

 Great Britain. The late Rev. H. A. Macpherson (torn. cit. 

 p. 79), drew attention to the fact that so early as 1876 it 

 had been recorded in winter, and in the same journal 



* In the years 1901, '02, '03 the Ruff nested on a marsh at the north 

 side of the Teesmouth (cf. " Ibis," 1906, p. 735). 



