TOTANUS. 



375 



The Ruff is a very remarkable bird, having a fringe of long feathers round the neck s P eci fi c 



i ■ , t i- T ■, • -. i i i • • , • characters. 



during the breeding-season. Immature birds and both sexes in either summer or winter 

 plumage may be diagnosed as having white axillaries, but no white on the primaries, 

 secondaries, or central upper tail-coverts. 



The Ruff is a rare summer migrant to the British Islands, a few pairs still occasionally 

 breeding in the Norfolk broads ; but it is more abundant on spring and autumn migration. 

 Formerly it bred in great numbers in most of the marshy districts of England, from 

 Northumberland southwards. In Scotland and Ireland it occurs regularly on migration, 

 and it is occasionally seen on the Orkneys and on Shetland. 



The Ruff is a west Pakearctic species, breeding as far north as land extends, as far Geographi- 

 south as the valley of the Danube and the Kirghiz Steppes, and as far east as the Taimyr t i on _ 



Peninsula and West Dauria, where it reaches to and probably breeds in the upper valley of 

 the Amoor. It passes through the basins of the Mediterranean, Black, Caspian, and Aral 

 Seas on migration, and winters in suitable localities in every part of Africa, Northern India, 

 and Burma. Like many other Waders, it occasionally straggles far and wide during 

 winter. A single example has occurred in Ceylon, and another on the north island of 

 Japan, whilst others have been obtained in the United States of America (Maine, Massa- 

 chusetts, New York, and Ohio), and in Spanish Guiana. Pallas stated that it was not 

 rare in Kamtschatka ; but subsequent travellers have failed to meet with it, though two 

 examples have recently been obtained on Behring Island (Stejneger, Orn. Expl. Comm. Isl. 

 and Kamtschatka, p. 317). 



The Ruff is undoubtedly a very aberrant species of the genus Totanus, but there is no Pseudo- 

 reason to suppose that its eccentricities date further back than the peculiarities of its allies. S euera - 

 The coincidence that it has only two instead of four notches on the posterior margin of 

 its sternum is probably the reason why the genus Machetes still survives in quarters where 

 the new-born zeal to recognize anatomical characters is not yet tempered with discretion. 



