THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 509 



in consequence of the cold easterly gale. Since that time this 

 species of Sandpiper has neither been shot nor observed here again ; 

 this is the more singular, inasmuch as it is by no means a rare 

 breeding bird in northern Norway and Sweden, whence its nesting 

 stations must extend through Finland to at least central Asia, for 

 it is met with in India during the autumn migration. 



300. Ruff [KAMPFHAHN]. 

 TRINGA PUGNAX, Brisson. 1 



Heligolandish : Bruus-hohn = Buff ; lit,, Fighting Cock. 



Machetes pucjnax. Naumann, vii. 502. 



Ruff. Dresser, viii. 87. 



Combattant variable. Temminck, Manuel, ii. 631, iv. 411. 



Of this species, whose appearance is of such singular peculiarity 

 in the fantastic ornamentation assumed by the male in breeding 

 plumage, only young birds of the year occur as regular visitors on 

 migration .in Heligoland in autumn. Old individuals, with fully 

 developed ruffs and head-plumes, are met with during all the summer 

 months, either as stragglers or in small companies, up to the com- 

 mencement of the autumn moult, when the long feathers of the neck 

 begin to disappear again. These are doubtless individuals which 

 have been roving about without pairing on the neighbouring coasts 

 and flat islands, and Avhich have been induced by the fine weather 

 to undertake a somewhat further excursion across the sea. I have 

 only twice obtained males with perfectly pure white ruffs; both 

 of these are very handsome birds, especially the last, in which the 

 feathers of the breast are black, with steel blue reflections, those 

 of the upper parts being of a fine rust-colour speckled with black, 

 each with a large shining roundish black spot at the tip. 



The nesting range of this species commences in the west in 

 Holland and northern Germany, and extends northwards to the 

 extreme north of Scandinavia, and within the same parallels of 

 latitude eastwards to Kaintschatka. Von Middendorff met with 

 young birds in the middle of August, as high as 75 N. latitude ; 

 these birds must, therefore, have been hatched in districts still 

 further north. Bunge, also, on the 19th of August, found a young 

 bird on the New Siberian Islands. 



1 Machetes pugnax ( Linn . ) . 



