294 
PRiECOCIAL G-RALLATORES — LIMICOL2E. 
At this time the feathers of the neck are greatly elongated, forming a kind of cape or ruff, and the 
face is beset with papillae. 
The Ruff is about the size of the Bartrani’s Tattler or Field Plover, which it otherwise resem- 
bles somewhat in color. It has the same mottling of the inner webs of primaries as in Tryngites 
rufescens, though not to so great an extent, this feature not being found in any other North 
American Totanece, though seen in Limosa fedoa. 
The well-known Ruff of Europe claims a place in the North American fauna as a 
not infrequent straggler within our limits. Several specimens have been from time 
to time killed on Long Island. More recently other examples have been taken at 
Grand Menan, all of which were in their winter plumage. Two have been taken in 
Massachusetts, and others in various portions of New England. In one instance Mr. 
William Brewster procured a tine specimen near Newburyport, May 20, 1871 it was 
a female, with her ovaries so far developed as to render it evident that she would 
have been ready to deposit her eggs within at least two or three weeks. 
The most marked peculiarity of this species is the annual appearance of a ruff-like 
growth of feathers about the neck of the male, from which the bird derives its trivial 
name. The males, too, differ remarkably in their color — an unusual circumstance 
among wild birds — and are polygamous. They are also much larger than the 
females. 
This species has an extended distribution, being found at certain seasons through- 
out Europe, Northern Africa, and in Western Asia. It is only a migrant in Great 
Britain, making its appearance in April and leaving in the autumn. In Scandinavia 
the Ruff appears in great numbers on the coast of Scona at the end of April or the 
beginning of May. It is not known to breed in the southern parts of Scandinavia, 
although it does abundantly in Denmark. It reaches Lapland the last week in 
May, where it frequents, on its first coming, the margins of the lakes and rivers. As 
soon as the grass has grown up, it hides in the extensive and grassy morasses, where 
it can rarely be forced to show itself on the wing. The old birds migrate south in 
July, the young lingering until August ; by the 15th they have all disappeared. 
This species goes as far north as Iceland, visits Russia and Siberia in the summer, 
and the countries south in their migrations, at which times only are they seen in 
France, Switzerland, Italy, etc. In a few exceptional cases a pair has occasionally 
been known to breed in Switzerland. Individuals have also been taken at Malta, at 
Tunis, Trebizond, in the country about the Caucasus, in Northwestern India, in Nepal, 
near Calcutta, and throughout Lower Bengal. 
Until within comparatively few years the capture of the living birds of this species 
in England, and the fattening of them for the London market, has been systematically 
practised by certain persons. Montagu mentions a noted feeder at Spalding whose 
family had been in this trade more than a century, and who, at the time that author 
visited him, had eighty-four males and a dozen females in confinement. Of the 
former there were not two alike. These birds will feed greedily, the moment they 
^are taken, on bread and milk or boiled wheat. The males are very pugnacious, and 
contend for their food with so much obstinacy that they will not eat unless there are 
several dishes before them. Their actions in fighting are said to be something like 
those of a game cock. Although they present a very ferocious appearance when 
fighting, yet they rarely injure one another. 
In the spring the Ruffs assemble on a rising spot of ground, where they contend 
for the females. Advantage is taken of this by the fowler to capture them alive by 
means of what is known as a clap-net. 
