134 GRALLATORES. MACHETES. RUFF. 



Food, feed greedily immediately after being taken. In the wild 

 state, their food consists of worms, aquatic insects, and their 

 larva? ; but in confinement they soon eat bread and milk, 

 boiled wheat, and other farinaceous diet, with avidity, and 

 upon which they shortly become very fat. In England, this 

 species, from its habits, is very locally distributed ; .the fens 

 of Lincolnshire and Cambridge being the chief resort ; they 

 are, however, found, though in inconsiderable numbers, in 

 other places. A small flock annually frequents the marsh of 

 Prestwick Car, near Newcastle-upon-Tyne ; and this, as far 

 as I have been able to trace, is the northern limit of resi- 

 dence in this country. In autumn I have indeed frequently 

 met with small flocks on the coast, or in the marshes farther 

 inland, but consisting of birds (viz. young males, with some- 

 times a few females intermixed) on their migration from the 

 north of Europe towards their winter-quarters, and whose 

 stay seldom exceeded a week or ten days. The geographical 

 distribution of this species is confined to the old Continent, 

 and its polar migration extends as far as Iceland, and the 

 northern parts of Russia; but the limit of its equatorial 

 movement has not been well ascertained. 



PLATE 25. Fig. 1. represents a male in the summer plu- 

 mage. 



General Bill and legs pale ochre-yellow. Face naked, and covered 

 j^ np " with small yellow fleshy tubercles. From the hind part 



Male bird ^ t ^ le neac ^ or auricles, arise two thick tufts of feathers, 



having tips curled backwards, of a yellowish-brown co- 

 lour, barred with black, and glossed with purple. Ruff 

 composed of elongated feathers, with strong shafts, 

 springing from the throat, and under side of the neck, 

 of a pale sienna-yellow colour, with zigzag black bars. 

 Upper parts of the body a mixture of hair-brown, yel- 

 lowish-brown, and black. Sides of the breast and flanks 

 yellowish-brown, barred with black. Middle of the 

 belly, abdomen, and under tail-coverts, white. Wings 



