273 
of Edinburg! l, Session 1876 - 77 . 
The ruff is polygamous. After the breeding season a separation 
takes place between the sexes, which continues till the approach 
of the following spring. The example now before us is thus 
exceptional, as occurring along with one female long after the 
breeding season was past, which is late in the spring, or in 
May. At one time these birds were met with in great numbers 
in the low-lying districts of Norfolk and Lincoln, where they 
bred. Even in these localities they are now seldom met with. 
There are no instances on record of their nesting in Scotland, 
where they are even more rare than in England. “ On the 
east coast of Scotland,” says Macgillivray, u they usually appear 
about the middle of September and depart in about a fortnight ; 
but I have never seen an adult male killed there, the little flocks 
that occur being young birds and females.” “ Except in a very 
few instances,” says Mr Gray, “ I have never met with the ruff in 
the western counties. One or two occasionally penetrate as far as 
the Clyde, but these are mere stragglers.”* The forms now noticed 
appeared at a considerable distance from the coast, in a district, 
however, which at one time must have presented as good nesting 
ground as could be found in Norfolk or Lincoln, but which by 
drainage and many other features of high farming has become 
almost free from conditions suitable to their habits. It would 
almost seem as if some birds have a transmitted instinct towards 
certain localities, which at long intervals finds high expression in 
certain pairs. Might not this account for the occasional occurrence 
of the bittern, the night heron, and many other forms in districts 
where they are now regarded as stragglers ? I know, moreover, 
one locality where the names of places show' how common the raven 
had been at one time, but where only one pair is known to have 
appeared in forty years. Many instances of this kind might be 
given. The habits of the ruff have been, I might almost say, so 
exhaustively described by Montague, Bennie, Selby, and others, 
as to make it unnecessary to refer to them here. I have, however, 
placed on the table other specimens than that now noticed, with 
* Dr John Alexander Smith has noticed specimens from Carnwath, Alloa, 
Portobello, and Fenton Barns, East Lothian. As many as a dozen were 
recently seen near Grangemouth by Mr Harvie Brown, five of which were 
shot. 
