78 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



The Sanderling has a wide range in Europe, Asia, 

 and N. America, and has been recorded as occurring 

 as far to the south as Ceylon, Madagascar, and Chili. 

 For full details as to the northern breeding-localities 

 of this bird, its eggs, and nest, I must refer my 

 readers to the well-condensed account given in the 

 4th edition of Yarrell, from which work I have so 

 frequently quoted in writing these Notes. 



In my small experience I have found the Sander- 

 ling almost as tame as the Knot, running before one 

 at a short distance, with frequent halts, noddings of 

 the head, and a clear short whistle. I never found 

 it actually in company with birds of another species. 



153. RUFF. 



Machetes jjugnax. 



This remarkable bird, which w^as formerly common 

 and a regular spring visitor to and breeder in many 

 of the fen districts of England, especially those of 

 our bordering counties of Lincoln, Cambridge, and 

 Huntingdon, has now, from the drainage and culti- 

 vation of its favourite haunts, and the constant 

 persecution to which it was, and is still exposed, 

 become a comparatively rare bird in our Islands, and 

 although a few pairs still resort annually in the 

 spring to some special localities, they are seldom if 

 ever allowed to rear a brood, as collectors offer 

 rewards for British specimens of the eggs of this 

 species, which the fenmen can hardly be expected to 

 decline. During the subsidence of the great floods 

 in the valley of the Nen in the early spring of 1853 

 our meadows between Lilford and Thrapston were 



