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THF RUFF. 
Machetes pugna-x, Cuvier. 
PLATE XVI. 
Tringa pugnax, Linn., Penn., Ac. — Machetes pugnax, Cuvier 
and modern writers . — Tringa littorea, cinereus, equestris, 
Shore Sandpiper, Yellow-legged Sandpiper (female and 
young of the year) Ruff (male). Reeve (female), of 
British authors. 
This very remarkable bird is in England a summer 
visitant, arriving annually to breed in the fenny 
districts, to which it is at this time restricted, and 
from whence it is gradually decreasing, both from 
the numbers taken, and from the great and extensive 
drainage which has been made in their favourite 
haunts. In other parts of Britain it is a spring and 
autumnal bird of passage, being occasionally met 
with on the moors, in the way to these southern 
stations, but much more frequently along our shores; 
and on our mosses and salt marshes after breeding 
has been completed, and all traces of the adorn- 
ments of the male have passed away. 
In this species, we have one of the most re- 
markable analogies existing between forms belong- 
ing to distinct orders of birds. Among a family 
