446 



RUNNER. 



ing the ruff : the opinion, therefore, that those ruffless males are birds 

 of a very late brood of the preceding season, is a reasonable conjecture. 



The long feathers on the neck and sides of the head, in the male, that 

 constitute the ruff and auricles, are of short duration, for they are 

 scarcely completed in the month of May, and begin to fall the latter 

 end of June. The change of these singular parts is accompanied by a 

 complete change of plumage ; the stronger colours, such as purple, 

 chestnut, and some others, vanish at the same time, so that in their 

 winter dress they become more generally alike from being less varied 

 in plumage ; but we observed that those who had the ruff more or less 

 white, retained that colour about the neck after the summer or au- 

 tumnal moulting was effected. 



The females, or Reeves, begin laying their eggs the first or second 

 week in May ; and we have found their nests with young as early as the 

 third of June. By this time the males cease to hill. 



The nest is usually formed upon a tump in the most swampy places, 

 surrounded by coarse grass, of which it is also formed. 



The eggs are (as usual with its congeners) four in number ; these 

 are so nearly similar in colour to those of the snipe and redshank, both 

 of which breed in the same wet places, and make similar nests, that 

 some experience is required to discriminate them ; they are, however, 

 superior in size to the former, and are known from the latter by the 

 ground being of a greenish hue instead of rufous white ; but individuals 

 assimilate so nearly to each other, as not to be distinguished, especially 

 as the dusky and brown spots and blotches are similar. The weight of 

 the eggs is from five drams twenty grains, to five drams fifty grains.* 



RUNNER. — A name for the Water-rail. 



