GOD WITS. 493 



performing migrations of enormous length. Their food consists of insects, 

 crustaceans, and molluscs, supplemented by fruit ; and their shrill, piping notes are 

 among the most familiar sounds of the seashore. More or less gregarious and 

 social in their habits, especially in the winter, with the single exception of the 

 ruff, all are monogamous ; and their scanty nests are usually placed on the ground, 

 and contain, at the proper season, four pear-shaped spotted eggs. Among the 

 better-known British forms are the common sandpiper (Totanus hypoleucus), 

 the green sandpiper (T. ochropus), the redshank (T. calidris), the greenshank 

 (T. glottis), and the ruff (T. pugnax). 



This last is a remarkable and interesting species, characterised by the 

 periodical assumption by the males of a large ruff round the neck, which is 

 scarcely ever exactly similar in any two individuals; the general plumage of 

 that sex being likewise very variable at the same season. The immature males 

 and females resemble an ordinary sandpiper ; but they may always be recognised 

 by their white axillaries, coupled with the absence of any white on the quills 

 and central upper tail-coverts. In length the male measures about 12 inches 

 and the female some 2 inches less. Formerly common in the English marshes, the 

 ruff is now mainly a passing visitor to Britain, its breeding-haunts range from 

 the most northern lands of Europe and Asia as far south as the valley of the 

 Danube and the Kirghiz Steppes, while in winter it wanders as far as the Cape, 

 Northern India, Burma, and even more remote regions. Next to the extraordinary 

 variation in the character of the plumage, the most interesting features about the 

 ruff are the extreme pugnacity displayed by the cocks, and the circumstance 

 that these birds differ from all their kin in being polygamous the females largely 

 exceeding the males in number. During the pairing-season the cocks congregate 

 at certain spots known as " hills," and there display their pugnacious propensities, 

 although, as in French duels, but little serious harm results to the combatants. 

 The nest, which is roughly lined with dead grass and sedge, is usually placed on a- 

 tussock in the middle of a swamp. Years ago enormous numbers of ruffs and 

 reeves (as the females are termed) were netted in the Lincolnshire marshes during^ 

 the breeding-season. By many writers ruffs are separated as Machetes. 



Nearly allied to the preceding group are the birds known as 

 godwits, distinguished by the feathers of the forehead not extending 

 in advance of the angle of the gape, the extremity of the long beak being hard and 

 but little expanded. A large portion of the tibia is devoid of feathers, and the 

 claw of the third toe is comb-like. Were it not that there is a difference in the 

 conformation of the upper-part of the breast-bone in the two groups, the godwits- 

 could scarcely be separated generically from the hard-billed sandpipers. These 

 birds are represented by four species and two varieties, all of which breed in the 

 Temperate and Arctic portions of the Northern Hemisphere, but migrate far to 

 the south in winter, and two of which frequent the British Islands. Of the latter 

 the bar-tailed god wit (Limosa rufa), which measures 15 or 16 inches in length,, 

 has in summer the upper tail-coverts and tail white with dark brown barrings, 

 but is especially characterised by the lower back, rump, axillaries, and under wing- 

 coverts being white with obscure brown markings. Breeding locally on the Arctic 

 tundras of Europe and Western Asia, the ordinary form is replaced by a variety 



