RUFF. 701 



neck, put on the ruff in confinement the next spring for the 

 first time, which was large, and the feathers were a mix- 

 ture of white and chestnut ; the scapulars and breast also 

 marked with chestnut; and in the succeeding autumnal 

 moulting he re-assumed his former cinereous plumage." 



In a specimen, kept over two summers, at the Gardens of 

 the Zoological Society in the Regent's Park, the moulting 

 of the ruff commenced on the head and neck, about the 

 29th of March, 1 832 ; the feathers on the body were not 

 thrown off; the head and neck were left destitute of plum- 

 age, but the feathers of the body remained in a perfect 

 state. The new ruff and head feathers appeared almost 

 immediately, and were perfected by the 4th of May. This 

 bird began to shed his ruff feathers on the 8th of June, 

 and by the 6th of July he had lost them all. The feathers 

 that formed the ruff round the neck of this same bird in 

 the spring of 1831, were ash coloured; but the feathers 

 that ornamented the same part during the spring of 1832 

 were decidedly black. 



A female, killed at the end of April, from which the re- 

 presentation was taken, had the beak one inch and a 

 quarter in length, dark brown at the point, but lighter in 

 colour at the base ; irides dusky brown ; head and neck 

 ash brown, the centre of each of the small feathers darker 

 than the margin, producing a spotted appearance ; scapu- 

 lars, back, wing-coverts, and tertials, nearly black, with 

 broad ash-brown margins ; some of the great wing-coverts 

 and tertials barred transversely with pale reddish brown ; 

 primaries dull black, with white shafts ; secondaries edged 

 with pale brownish white ; rump, and upper tail-coverts, 

 brown ; tail-feathers ash brown, barred transversely with 

 pale reddish brown and black ; chin greyish white ; fea- 

 thers of the front of the neck, the breast, and sides, black 

 in the centre, with broad greyish-white margins ; belly, 



