SCOLOPACID.E. 329 



the tanks scattered throughout the jungle. It is usually in small 

 companies, wading up to the extent of its long legs, and even 

 swimming across small holes or depressions which it may encounter 

 while wading. It feeds on small crustaceans, worms, and shells, and 

 is easy of approach, till it learns to fear the presence of man. On 

 being flushed, the flock flies round and round, each bird uttering a 

 loud cry of " wheet-wheet-wheet," in a different key, the whole 

 forming a pleasing music, as agreeable to the ear of the naturalist as 

 the cry of a pack of hounds is to that of a fox-hunter. 



The Sub-Family, TRINGIN^I, or Sandpipers, 



have the bill generally longer than or as long as the head, 

 slender, and compressed on the sides, with the culmen near 

 the tip slightly depressed and enlarged ; the nostrils basal, 

 and placed in a nasal groove, that extends for two-thirds of 

 the bill ; the wings long and pointed ; the tail moderate and 

 rounded ; the tarsi usually long and slender ; the toes more 

 or less long, and united at the base. 



Genus PHILOMACHUS, Moehring. 



Bill as long as the head, straight, rather slender, the sides 

 compressed and grooved to near the tip, which is rather 

 dilated ; the nostrils basal, lateral, and placed in a basal 

 groove ; wings long and pointed, with the first and second 

 quills equal and longest ; tail rather short, and nearly even ; 

 tarsi long, slender, and covered in front with transverse 

 scales ; toes moderate, the lateral ones unequal, with the 

 outer united at the base to the middle one as far as the first 

 joint, and the base of the inner toe free ; the hind toe elevated 

 and short. 



619. Philomachus Pugnax. (Linn.) PL 



300, 305, 306; Tringa Pugnax, Linn.; T. Varie- 

 gata, Briin. ; Machetes Pugnax, Guv. ; The " Ruff" $ , 

 "Reeve" Q, Bewick's Brit. Birds, p. 87. 



MALE, in winter, with the bill brown ; the feet greenish- 

 yellow ; the throat and abdomen white ; the fore-neck and 

 part of the breast, pale reddish-brown, spotted with dark- 

 brown ; the upper parts variegated with brownish-black and 

 light-red. Female similar, but with the upper parts lighter, 

 the lower more grey; the bill and feet dusky. Male, in 

 summer, with numerous fleshy tubercles on the face, two 

 occipital tufts, and a very large ruff of elongated feathers on 

 the neck ; the colour of the plumage varying in different 



