232 SCOLOPACIDiE. 



its tarsi were of a greyish-green colour. A flue adult reeve was 

 obtained on the 24th of August, 1885, on the shore of the bay; 

 and five others were subsequently procured that autumn, three of 

 which (killed on the 23rd and 24th September) came under my 

 examination : two were adult birds (one a male), and the other a 

 young bird of the year ; — they were all shot singly. On the 

 5th September, 1838, three appeared on the sea-shore, one 

 of which was killed by a person who had obtained them several 

 times. He remarks that they are partial to alighting on the 

 little grassy patches rising above the beach in preference to the 

 beach itself ; that, when disturbed, they fly high like snipes, and, 

 like these birds, come suddenly down from a height in the air, and 

 further resemble them by returning to the place whence they were 

 sprung ; — so late as the 29th November that year (1838) three 

 were seen. On the 10th of September, 1841, a ruff appeared in 

 company with some redshanks on the shore, where on the 25th 

 of September, 1842, two adult males were shot at Adams' Point, 

 and the same number likewise procured between the middle and 

 end of September 1844. In 1845, one only — obtained on the 

 borders of the bay at Garnerville on the 29th of October — was 

 known to have been killed. On the 2nd of that month, in 1848, 

 a reeve was procured at the same shot with four or five knots, 

 and was the only one of the species in the flock. 



All my information on the ruff as an Irish species, is now 

 given, from which it appears that the bird has -not been met with 

 by my correspondents on the southern or western coast, — a cir- 

 cumstance which, at all events, implies its comparative rarity 

 there. 



The ruff formerly bred annually in large numbers on the fenny 

 eastern counties of England, but has now almost ceased to do 

 so. I have not seen any record of its having ever bred in Scot- 

 land or Ireland. It is now known to the three countries chiefly 

 as an autumnal visitant, when passing southward from more nor- 

 thern breeding-haunts. 



I do not know any bird that varies so much in size as the ruff. I have seen some 

 young birds one-third less in dimensions than others killed at the same time, though 



