436 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



feathers known as the "ears." This frill, and the " ears," display a most remarkable 

 variety of coloration. The ruff may be uniformly coloured, striated, spotted, or 

 barred, while in colour it may be white, black, chestnut, or buff, or it may display 

 a combination of these colours, while commonly metallic purple, blue, or green 

 reflections overspread the darker feathers. The " ears " vary in coloration inde- 

 pendently of the "ruff," and the pattern and coloration of the back, wings and 

 flanks display a like wealth of variety. It is hardly an exaggeration to say 

 that no two males are alike. In this plumage, furthermore, the feathers of the 

 face are replaced by fleshy warts, of a bright yellow colour. After the autumn 

 moult the upper parts are of a uniform ash-brown, the margins of the feathers 

 being somewhat paler. The major coverts are tipped with white and have a 

 slight greenish gloss. The secondaries are ash-brown narrowly edged with white. 

 The lower back and rump are without distinctive markings, but there is a white 

 patch on either side of the tail formed by the upper tail-coverts. The tail feathers 

 are of an ash-brown colour, the outermost with a narrow edging of white. The 

 sides of the head and under parts are white, save the fore-neck, fore-breast, and 

 flanks, which are of a pale ash-brown with faint mottlings of a darker shade, the 

 centres of the feathers being somewhat darker than the margins. The female, in 

 summer, has the upper parts blackish, with a purplish gloss, and margined with 

 greyish white or chestnut-buff, while the breast and flank feathers are similarly 

 margined with buff, the hue varying with individuals. After the autumn moult 

 she resembles the male in coloration. The fledgling plumage resembles that of 

 the adult female in summer, the feathers of the upper surface having tawny buff 

 margins, but the white of the under parts is tinged with buff. The young in down 

 is of a pale buff colour above, with a median and two lateral stripes of black on 

 the crown, a black loral stripe and a semicircular loop of black encircling the 

 occiput. On the back is a patch of chestnut, which is traversed by longitudinal 

 lines of black ; finally the whole upper surface is spangled with white. The under 

 parts are of a buff-white, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In the British Isles the ruff formerly bred numerously 

 in the marshes of our eastern counties, but is now very rare as a breeding species, 

 although a bird or two annually attempt to nest in the Broads of Norfolk, and 

 in 1901-3 it bred near Teesmouth. Eggs apparently of this species were received 

 from Lancashire in 1910. Outside the British Isles the breeding range of the 

 ruff is confined to the Continent of Europe and Northern Asia. It breeds in the 

 high fjeld of Scandinavia and Russian Lapland, the Lower Dwina and Petschora, 



