878 MACHETES PUGNAX. 



by will leap or flirt a yard oft' the ground), by that means inducing those on the wing to come and alight 

 by him." 



Nidification. — The Ruff, as far as Asia is concerned, breeds almost entirely in the far north. It is one 

 of the species which does not nidificate in Turkestan, and perhaps does not do so regularly in Kashgharia. 

 It has been known to lay as early as the first week in May; but the usual -time is during the first half of June. 

 Von Middendorff took the first eggs on the Boganida, North-east Siberia, ou the loth of June ; and 

 on the 12th Mr. Seebohm got his first lot near the Arctic circle, on the Petchora, in Russia. In lower 

 latitudes the time is earlier. Mr. Dumford met with young on one of the North-Frisian islands at the 

 beginning of June. The nest is placed on a little hillock in a marsli on a large tuft of coarse grass, or 

 on " a stump in the most swampy places surrounded by coarse grass " [Montagu) . The grass in which the 

 nest is situated composes the material for the nest. The number of eggs laid is four ; they are pointed 

 ovals and vary in ground-colour. The prevailing colour is pale olivaceous, some being inclined to stone- 

 colour and others to a greyish tint. They vary much in marking, and also in shape, though they are in 

 character pyriform. Some are marked all over the large end with very large smeary clouds of rich dark 

 sepia mingled with underlying dark bluish-grey washes, accompanied, at the small end, by a few small blots. 

 In others all the large blotches are confined to the large end, where they are close together, but not confluent, 

 while over the rest of the egg are small blots and specks of black-brown very sparingly distributed. In 

 one egg the entire markings almost consist of the primary or underlying bluish-grey colouring in different 

 shades. The dimensions of some in a series before me are 1*83 by P32 inch, P79 by l - 25, 1"76 by PI i, 

 and 1-74 by 1-18. 



Genus TRINGA. 



Bill slender, flexible, moderately long, or not shorter than the head, usually straight, in 

 some slightly curved ; upper mandible channelled at the sides, the tip pointed and depressed ; 

 nostrils lateral and elongated. Wings long and pointed ; the 1st quill the longest. Tail short, 

 even or cuneate. Tarsus moderate, slender, scutellate in front. Toes divided to the base ; hind 

 toe and claw small. 



Sternum expanding posteriorly, the. outer notch wide and deep, the inner small and narrow. 

 Mostly of small size; of gregarious habit; with a marked breeding-plumage. 



