64 NORTH AMERICAN SHOREBIRDS. 



Ruff. Machetes pugnax (Linn.). 



Though an Old World species, the ruff has been taken many 

 times in the Western Hemisphere at widely separated localities as 

 follows: One at Nanortalik, on the southwest coast of Greenland, 

 (Fenckers); Toronto, Ontario, spring of 1882 (Seton); English Lake, 

 Ind., April 12, 1905 (Deane); a specimen in the Ohio State Uni- 

 versity collection bears the label, " Northern Canada, April 28, 

 1877" (Dawson); Licking Reservoir, Ohio, November 10, 1872 

 (Wheaton); Columbus, Ohio, April 28, 1878 (Jones); Grand Manan, 

 New Brunswick, no date (Boardman); Cole Harbor, near Halifax, 

 Nova Scotia, May 27, 1892 (Brewster); Upton, Me., September 8, 

 1874 (Brewster); Scarborough, Me., April 10, 1870 (Smith); Cam- 

 den, Me., September 14, 1900 (Thayer); Seabrook, N. H., Septem- 

 ber 24, 1907 (Hardy); Newburyport, Mass., May 20, 1871 (Brew- 

 ster); Chatham, Mass., September 12, 1880 (Grinnell); Nantucket, 

 Mass., July, 1901 (Palmer); near Sakonnet Point, Rhode Island, 

 July 30, 1900 (Hathaway); Point Judith, Rhode Island, August 31, 

 1903 (King); Long Island, New York, one in fall, 1845 (Lawrence), 

 one in October, 1851 (Lawrence), one in May 18, 1868 (Chapman); 

 another specimen seems to have been taken on Long Island, but the 

 date is not recorded (DeKay); Barnegat, N. J., no date (Chapman); 

 Four Mile Run, Va., September 3, 1894 (Palmer); Raleigh, N. C, 

 May 6, 1892 (Brimley); Barbados Island, one before 1848 (Schom- 

 burgk), and one in 1878 (Feilden) ; one in " Spanish America, " which 

 probably means near the headwaters of the Rio Negro in northern 

 South America (Pelzeln). 



It is thus seen that the ruff has been taken in this hemisphere 

 at least 27 times. Seven of the specimens have no date recorded; 

 9 were secured in the spring between April 10 and May 27; the other 

 11 were taken in the fall from July 30 to November 10. As would 

 be expected, most of the specimens are from near the Atlantic coast; 

 only 5 occurred in the interior, the westernmost being the one at 

 English Lake, Indiana. 



The breeding range of the ruff is from Great Britain to central 

 Siberia and north to the Arctic coast. The bird winters in Burma, 

 India, and to the southern part of Africa. It has wandered east in 

 Asia to Japan and the Commander Islands, but has not yet been de- 

 tected on the western coast of America. 



Upland Plover. Bartramia longicauda (Bechst.). 



Breeding range. — The upland or field plover, sometimes called the 

 Bartramian sandpiper, is one of the few shorebirds that nest commonly 

 in the Mississippi Valley. Early in the settlement of this region, 

 much more than half the upland plovers probably nested within 

 the boundaries of the United States. The center of abundance during 

 the breeding season was the prairie region from Kansas to Manitoba. 



