282 
VERTEBBATA. 
BLACK-TAILED GODWITS. 
.Pi 
THE EUPP. 
The Mablin, L. fedoa — also 
called Great Marbled Godwit, 
Red Curlew^ Straight-hilled Cur- 
lexo^ and Dough-Bird — is sixteen 
and a lialf inches long; above 
brown, varied with rufous and 
gray ; beneath pale reddish- 
brown or buff; feeds on aquatic 
insects, leeches, small grubs, shell- 
fish, and worms ; breeds at the 
North ; returns in large flocks in 
August, and remains in the Mid- 
dle States till November; ranees 
throughout temperate North 
America. 
The RiNGf-TAiLED Marlin, L. 
Hudsonica — called Goose-Bird 
around Boston — is fifteen and a 
half inches long; found in East- 
ern North America ; common in 
New Jersey. 
Genus MACHETES : Mache- 
tes. — This includes the Ruff, M, 
2mgnax, the only tnown species ; 
twelve inches long ; weight of 
the bird, when fat, ten ounces ; 
above of a shining purplish-black, 
barred with chestnut ; beneath 
white. The male is distinguish- 
ed by a ruff or tippet of feathers 
around the neck, these falling off" 
in June, attended by an entire 
cliange of plumage. It is far th er 
noted for a remarkable pug- 
nacity, very opposite to the gen- 
eral peaceful disposition of the 
grallatorial birds, as is also the 
practice of polygamy in which it 
indulges, and which is indeed the 
cause of the continual fighting 
that goes on during the breeding 
season. Montagu, in describing 
a conflict betAvcen two of these 
birds, says, "Their actions in 
fighting are very siinilar to those 
of a game-cock ; the head is 
lowered, and the beak held in a 
horizontal direction ; the raff", 
and indeed every feather, more 
or less distended, the former 
sweeping the ground as a shield 
to defend the more tender parts ; 
the atiriclos erected, and the tail 
