Cuass II. RUFF SANDPIPER. 
the more numerous the pimples, and the fuller 
and longer the ruffs. 
The length of the male to'thetip of the tail is 
one foot, the breadth two; the length of the 
Reeve ten inches, the breadth nineteen; the 
weight of the former when just taken is seven 
ounces and a half; of the latter only four. 
The Reeves never change their colors, which 
are pale brown; the back spotted with black, 
slightly edged with white; the tail brown; the 
middle feathers spotted with black; the breast 
and beliy white; the legs of a pale dull 
yellow. 
' These birds appear in the fens in the earliest 
spring, and disappear about JM/ichaelmas. The 
Reeves lay four eggs in a tuft of grass, the first 
week in May, and sit about a month. The 
eggs are white, marked with large rusty spots. 
Fowlers avoid in general taking the females, 
not only because they are smaller than the males, 
but that they may be left to breed. 
Soon after their arrival, the males begin to 
fill, that is to collect on some dry bank near a 
splash of water, in expectation of the females, 
who resort to them. Each male keeps posses- 
sion of a small piece of ground, which it runs 
round till the grass is worn quite away, and 
nothing but a naked circle is left. When a 
FEMALE. 
73 
