BIRDS. 



475 



erect. Soon one of the birds admits himself defeated, though usually he 

 has suffered no injury. After the mating, the feathers of the ruff fall out. 



Allied to the snipe are a long series of birds known under a host of 

 names, — willets, sand er lings, sandpipers, knot, dotterel, and the like; birds 

 with much the same habits, and which may be dismissed with this mere 

 mention. Dr. Coues's account of one will answer for all. 



" Fogs hang low and heavy over rock-girdled Labrador. Angry waves, 

 palled with rage, exhaust themselves to encroach upon the stern shores, 





Fig. 401. — Ruff (Pavoncella puynax). One of their fights is represented in the background. 



and baffled, slink back howling to the depths. Winds shriek as they course 

 from crag to crag in mad career, till the humble mosses that clothe the 

 rocks crouch lower still in fear. Overhead the sea-gulls scream as they 

 winnow, and the murres, all silent, ply eager oars to escape the blast. 

 What is there here to entice the steps of the delicate birds ? Yet they have 

 come, urged by resistless impulse, and have made a nest on the ground in 

 some half-sheltered nook. The material was ready at hand in the mossy 

 covering of the earth, and little care or thought was needed to fashion a 

 little bunch into a little home. Four eggs are laid with the points together, 

 so that they may take up less room, and be more warmly covered ; there 



