432 SCOLOPACID.E. 



regions of the interior it was to be found throughout the 

 year. In Asiatic Siberia the Ruff extends across the northern 

 portion during the breeding-season up to 75 N. lat. ; but 

 in the south-eastern districts, and on the Amoor, it is rare, 

 or unrecorded ; it has, however, been obtained in the island 

 of Yezo, Japan, but not in China. It visits Asia Minor, 

 and Turkestan ; crosses the Pamir, on the steppes of which 

 Dr. Severtzoff fancies it breeds ; visits the northern provinces 

 of India in vast flocks during the winter ; straggles to Ceylon ; 

 is tolerably abundant on the muddy shores of Northern 

 Burmah ; and has recently (Ibis, 1883, p. 86) been recorded 

 from Labuan, in North-Eastern Borneo. 



The Ruff has been known to straggle to North America, 

 examples having been obtained in the States of Maine, 

 Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio. Herr A. von Pelzen 

 records (Ibis, 1875, p. 332) an abnormally coloured specimen, 

 with plumage in a much worn and abraded condition, obtained 

 in the district between the Upper Rio Negro and the Orinoco : 

 the only recorded occurrence of the Ruff in the Neotropical 

 region. 



The nest of this species is placed in a tussock, generally 

 in the wettest part of a swamp, and the eggs are three or 

 four in number : of a pale green or olive colour, blotched and 

 spotted with brown ; the average measurements are 1*8 by 

 1*2 in. The young are somewhat less active and able to 

 take care of themselves than the nestlings of most of the 

 waders. The natural food of the Ruff consists largely of 

 insects and their larvae, and worms, with an admixture of 

 fine gravel ; but Mr. Collett found that the birds which he 

 shot on the autumn passage near Christiania, had their 

 stomachs filled exclusively with the seeds of a sea- shore 

 plant. The note is a low hack, kick, kack. 



The Ruff, in breeding-plumage, from which the engraved 

 figure was taken, had the beak one inch and a half in length, 

 and brown ; the irides dusky-brown ; the head, the whole 

 of the ruff, or tippet, and the shoulders, of a shining- 

 purple black, transversely barred with chestnut ; scapulars, 

 back, lesser wing-coverts, and some of the tertials, pale 



