PAYONCELLA. 269 



including the rump and upper tail-coverts, greyish brown; the 

 feathers with dark centres and pale edges ; greater wing-coverts 

 tipped white ; primary-coverts, primaries, and secondaries very 

 dark greyish brown, the secondaries with white borders and some 

 white on the inner webs ; sides of rump white ; tail brown like 

 the back ; lower parts, including axiilaries, white ; the fore neck 

 and upper breast tinged with brown, to a varying extent, from the 

 feathers having ashy-brown bases. 



Very often birds in winter retain traces of the summer plumage, 

 and the feathers, especially the tertiaries, commence to change 

 colour and assume the variegated tints of the nuptial season at 

 times as early as January. 



In breeding-dress, acquired partially by moult, the male has the 

 sides of the face and part of the crown covered with yellow 

 tubercles, and develops a ruff of long feathers and occipital tufts. 

 Scarcely any two birds are coloured alike : the head, throat, and 

 breast, with the ruff, are either white, black with a purple or green 

 gloss, chestnut or orange-buff, or any combination of these colours 

 in the form of patches, spots, or bars. The back, scapulars, and 

 inner wing-coverts are variegated with the same tints, and the 

 tertiaries are barred or mottled towards the ends. 



Females in summer have the feathers of the upper parts blackish 

 with sandy-buff borders, the tertiaries usually with mottled buff 

 and black bars ; feathers of the fore neck and upper neck with 

 buff edges and blackish centres, giving a patchy appearance to the 

 region. 



Young birds in autumn closely resemble females in summer 

 dress, except that the tertiaries are not barred and that the lower 

 parts are mostly isabelline-buff, only the abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts being white. 



There appear to be two moults of the body- feathers in the year, 

 but it is not quite clear that the quills are renewed, except at the 

 autumn moult. Birds have been taken in North India at the end 

 of June that had already almost dropped their summer plumage 

 and partly assumed the winter dress. 



Bill dark brown, paler at the gape ; irides brown ; legs and feet 

 fleshy yellow to yellowish brown in adults, olive-green to leaden 

 grey in the young. 



Length of male about 12; tail 275; wing 7'3 ; tarsus 1-9; 

 bill from gape 1/5. Length of female 10 ; tail 2'25 ; wing 6 ; 

 tarsus 1-75; bill 1/4. 



Distribution. This bird breeds in the northern temperate zone 

 throughout Europe and Asia, and migrates in winter to Africa and 

 Southern Asia, but is rare east of India. In the cold season it is 

 common in Northern India, but rare in the South, in Ceylon, and 

 generally in Assam and Burma, though Gates found it tolerably 

 abundant about the mouth of the Sittang River. 



Habits, dfc. In India the Ruff is chiefly met with inland in 

 flocks on the borders of tanks and marshes, and in damp grass- 

 land, but it is also found about creeks and estuaries in places. 



