874 
MACHETES PUGHS' AX. 
head, and sides o£ the ruff tinged with buff, and speckled on the head and nape with black ; chest and flank- 
plumes blue-black, some of the feathers partly white ; abdomen, flanks, and under tail-coverts white ; hind 
neck and scapulars creamy white, handsomely dappled with black, many of the feathers with a terminal patch of 
the same, tertials barred with black and rufous-buff; some of the innermost greater coverts buff, mottled with 
black ; wings as in the last ; back brown ; tail brown, the outer feathers with black subterminal bars and indentations 
of buff ; face much more feathered than in the last ; under wing white. 
1 he above examples furnish instances of the two extremes of coloration in this extraordinarily variable phase of 
plumage. Between these two every conceivable variety of plumage exists*. Light varieties are perhaps more 
common than black ; the backs of these are mostly rufous-yellow or buff, more or less extensively marked with 
black. The following is the colouring of some of the ruffs, including the head and throat : — 
(а) Throat and ruff white ; head and nape tawny yellow, mottled with black. 
(!>) Throat, ruff, and head white, the former boldly barred with shining blue-black ; head striped and the nape mottled 
with the same (scapulars the same, and the back barred with black and tawny). 
(c) Throat and ruff white ; neck ferruginous ; head and hind neck purple-black. 
{d) Head, neck, and ruff light ferruginous; throat white (under surface white, patched with black and tawny). 
(<?) Head and nape rusty buff, mottled with black, paling on the throat and ruff into buff barred with black rusty- 
edged bands (back and scapulars rusty buff, handsomely marked with crescentic black bands). 
(/) Head, neck, throat, and ruff creamy white, with a black gorget, and the ruff -feathers with terminal spots of black; 
hind neck speckled with black. 
Of the dark varieties the following may be instanced ; — 
(«) Buff and neck black; chin, head, and nape white, the latter with mottlings and shafts of black. 
(б) Head and nape green-black ; throat, fore neck, and ruff black, with narrow wavy bars of white (breast, inter- 
scapulars, and scapulars coal-black). 
(c) Head and nape black, with many ferruginous cross lines ; throat, neck, and ruff rich rusty buff, barred with black. 
Adult female,. Wing 5-8 to 6-3 inches ; tail 2'4 to 2‘6 ; tarsus 1-5 to l - 6 ; bill to gape 1-25 to 1'4. 
(Valley of the Petcbora, June.) No ruff; head, hind neck, back, and wings brown ; the head and centres of the hind- 
neck feathers very dark, with pale edges ; wing-covert feathers likewise pale-edged ; scapulars black, tipped with 
whitish, and margined laterally with dusky buff ; quills and primary-coverts dark brown ; secondaries tipped 
with white ; lateral upper tail-coverts white, the centre feathers blackish brown, barred with rufous and white ; tail 
brown, the lateral feathers mottled with black and tawny yellow on the outer webs ; chin whitish ; fore neck 
whity brown, washed with rufescent, many of the feathers with two black subterminal spots ; underparts dusky- 
white, greyish on the chest and flanks, with a few blackish rufous-margined feathers at the sides of the chest. 
Eemales vary a good deal in summer plumage. A July specimen from the Yenesay has the upper surface, rump, 
scapulars, and wing-coverts chiefly black, the hind-neck feathers margined with rufous-grey, and scapulars, upper 
tail-coverts, and wing-coverts handsomely marked with crescentic bars of rufous ; chin and throat buff; fore-neck 
feathers black, with rufous-grey tips. Another from the Lower Petcbora has the head fulvous, striped with 
black ; the hind neck, scapulars, tertials, and wing-coverts black, with clearly defined edges of rufous-buff, 
recalling somewhat the markings of a Snipe ; throat white ; fore neck brownish fulvous, the feathers being 
brownish grey, tipped with fulvous. 
Adult male (winter). Wants the ruff and facial warts ; chin white ; fore neck greyish brown ; upper surface brown, 
the feathers centred with blackish, and the scapulars often handsomely marked with black and edged with 
rufous ; interscapular region with triangular dark marks ; central tail-feathers edged with rufous ; the fore neck, 
chest, and flanks generally with dark bars, edged with rufous-buff. 
Young, nestling. Above greyish buff ; a broad black stripe down the back, with a white mesial line, and on each side 
a broad band of white ; head with a diamond-shaped black mark, divided by a central stripe ; a dark stripe through 
the lores and ear-coverts and passing round the nape ; nape brown, with a dark bar across the hiud neck, and 
two lateral ones continued along the side of the body to the rump, where they widen, forming, with the aforesaid 
* Montagu, in his interesting account of a visit to a fowler in the fen-districts, says (Orn. Diet. p. 443), “ 'We 
were shown into a room where there were about seven dozen males and a dozen females ; and of the former there were 
not two alike.” 
