BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 219 
plumage and coloration, the neck adorned with a conspicuous erectile 
ruff of elongated feathers, the loral and frontal regions naked (or 
partially so) and papillose. Adult males variously colored, scarcely 
two individuals being nearly alike in coloration; adult female grayish * 
brown with paler margins to feathers, passing into white on abdomen 
‘and posterior underparts, the tertials and middle rectrices more or 
less barred or transversely spotted with black or dusky. 
Range.—Chiefly Palearctic or Eurasian, but occurring rarely in 
North America. (Monotypic.) 
MACHETES PUGNAX (Linnzus). 
RUFF. 
Adult male in summer.—Back and scapulars variegated with black, 
gray, buffy, and whitish, the first predominating, the whitish in form 
of irregular bars; wing-coverts grayish brown indistinctly margined 
with paler, the secondaries similar but with narrow though distinct 
edgings of white; primary coverts and primaries darker grayish 
brown, indistinctly paler at tips (narrowly), their shafts white or 
yellowish white; tertials broadly barred with black and grayish 
brown, the latter intermixed with whitish; rump grayish brown, the 
feathers with indistinct shaft-streaks of darker, and paler margins; 
median upper tail-coverts blackish distally, narrowly barred with 
pale-buffy, pale brownish gray, or dull whitish and tipped with brown- 
ish gray, the lateral upper tail-coverts immaculate white; middle 
rectrices brownish gray, broadly but indistinctly barred with dusky, 
narrowly tipped with dull whitish or buffy, and with a rather large 
subterminal spot of black, the lateral rectrices rather light plain 
grayish brown; abdomen, under tail-coverts, axillars, and greater 
part of under wing-coverts immaculate white. In coloration of the 
head, neck, chest and breast, varying remarkably, scarcely two 
specimens being nearly alike; the occipital tufts or ‘‘cape’”’ usually 
glossy black, ochraceous, or whitish, the ‘‘ruff’’ chestnut, glossy 
black, buff, ochraceous, or whitish, and these colors maybe either 
plain, streaked barred, minutely freckled, or otherwise marked;¢ bill 
yellowish orange passing into brownish or dusky terminally; papille 
of head reddish; iris brown; legs and feet yellow (in life). 
Adult male in winter—Pileum and hindneck light grayish brown, 
the former (at least on crown) narrowly streaked with darker; scapu- 
lars, interscapulars, rump, median upper tail-coverts, and wing- 
coverts grayish brown, the feathers darker centrally and with paler 
margins, the greater wing-coverts tipped with white; sides of head and 
neck, together with foreneck, chest, and sides, light grayish brown, 
« The adult males contained in the collection of the British Museum in 1896, num- 
bering between thirty and forty specimens, represented no less than fifteen distinct 
types of coloration. (See Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896, 504, 505. 
