THE RUFF. Ill 



bill, at the same time leaping and using the wings as 

 weapons of assault. It may be fairly concluded, judging 

 from the general formation of the bird, that these quarrels 

 are seldom of a sanguinary character. 



Ruffs are polygamous, and the feminine members of 

 the community are, as may be imagined, the originating 

 causes of these perpetual disturbances. 



Early in May the Reeve commences laying ; the eggs 

 usually number four, and vary considerably in appearance, 

 some being of a beautiful green ground colour, and others 

 olive brown, spotted with darker brown. The nest is made 

 of coarse grass, and is usually placed on some hillock^ 

 amongst reeds, sedge, or rushes. 



No bird that visits Great Britain varies so much in 

 plumage as the Ruff. Very seldom are two specimens 

 exactly alike ; and it is stated that in a couple of hundred 

 examined by Klein, only two specimens were similar. In 

 the breeding plumage of the one before us the Ruff has the 

 beak brown, and one inch and a half in length ; the hides 

 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 chestnut, speckled and tipped 

 with black ; greater wing-coverts nearly uniform ash- 

 brown j 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, chestnut, tipped 

 with black ; belly, vent, arid under tail-coverts white, with 

 occasional spots of dark brown ; legs and toes pale yellowish- 

 brown ; claws black ; the entire length of the bird is rather 

 more than twelve inches. According to Montagu, the long 



