338 THE COMPLETE WILDFOWLER 
bird throughout the year on all our coasts, its food consisting 
principally of mussels and limpets, which its powerful wedge- 
shaped bill enables it to detach from the rocks. It also feeds 
on crustacea and marine insects. Early in the spring large 
flocks begin to break up into pairs. 
The nest is generally made on the shingle or the top of a 
low rock just above high-water mark, but where the rocks are 
steep and precipitous it is placed on the top of the cliff, some 
distance above the sea-level. In Scotland they sometimes 
nest inland along the river banks. 
The head and neck, scapulars and mantle, lesser wing- 
coverts and tip of the tail are brilliant black, the rest of the 
plumage white. Bill orange, getting richer in colour towards 
base ; legs whitish pink. The sexes are alike, and in winter 
there is a white crescent round the throat, and the bill is horn- 
coloured at the tip. The bill is continually growing and so 
counteracting the wear and tear to which it is subjected. 
Length about 16 in. ; wing 9°75 in. 
RUFF 
Machetes pugnax (Macgill) 
The Ruff at one time bred with us, but is now chiefly a 
spring and autumn visitor. In summer the males don an 
ornamental ruff around the neck. In coloration these ‘‘Ruffs” 
vary considerably, there being white, brown, cinnamon, and 
black examples commonly met with. The female, known as 
the Reeve, is smaller than the male, and has not a ruff at any 
time. In their breeding habits they are said to be polygamous. 
The young birds of the year occur regularly with us in early 
autumn, and are in the majority males. Reeves are about the 
size of a Redshank, but are rufous-brown above, and white 
tinged faintly with cinnamon below. Young Ruffs are like the 
Reeves, but are larger. Length: Reeves, 10°5 in.; Ruffs, 
11°75 in. 
