RUFF. 433 



chestnut, speckled and tipped with black; greater wing- 

 coverts nearly uniform ash-brown ; quill-feathers brownish- 

 black, with white shafts ; rump and upper tail-coverts white ; 

 tail-feathers ash-brown, varied with chestnut and black ; the 

 feathers of the breast, below the ruff, and on the sides, chest- 

 nut, tipped with black ; belly, vent, and under tail-coverts, 

 white, with an occasional spot of dark brown ; legs and toes 

 pale yellow-brown ; claws black. 



The whole length of the male is about twelve inches and 

 a half. Wing, from the carpal joint to the end of the first 

 quill-feather, which is the longest, six inches and a half. 

 The weight of a Ruff is about six ounces, but a Ruff, when 

 fatted, will weigh ten ounces. 



Montagu says, " The long feathers on the neck and sides 

 of the head, in the male, that constitute the ruff and auricles, 

 are of short duration, for they are scarcely completed in the 

 month of May, and begin to fall the latter end of June. The 

 change of these singular parts is accompanied by a complete 

 change of plumage ; the stronger colours, such as purple, 

 chestnut, and some others, vanish at the same time, so that 

 in their winter dress they become more generally alike from 

 being less varied in their plumage ; but we observed that 

 those who had the ruff more more or less white, retained that 

 colour about the neck after the autumnal moulting was 

 effected. We noticed that in confinement their annual 

 changes never varied ; every spring produced the same 

 coloured ruff and other feathers, but the tubercles on the face 

 never appeared.* A young male that was taken destitute of 

 a ruff in the breeding-season, whose plumage was mostly 

 cinereous, except about the head and neck, put on the ruff in 

 confinement the next spring for the first time, which was 

 large, and the feathers were a mixture of white and chest- 

 nut ; the scapulars and breast also marked with chestnut ; 

 and in the succeeding autumnal moulting he re-assurned his 

 former cinereous plumage." 



* In confirmation of this, Mr. A. D. Bartlett assures the Editor that in birds 

 which had been carefully marked, the original colour of the ruff was always re- 

 produced the following spring, as proved by a series of drawings by Mr. J. Wolf. 



VOL. III. 3 K 



