THE RUFFS. 
273 
Adult Female in Winter Plumage. — Similar to the male, but dis- 
tinguished by its smaller size. Wing only 5‘9-6-2 inches. 
Characters. — Reeves and Ruffs in winter or in immature 
plumage are often sent to me at the Museum for identification, 
and it may be as well, therefore, to state that in winter 
plumage the length of wing, combined with the comparatively 
short bill and the colour of the feet and toes, will generally dii- 
tinguish the species. Mr. Seebohm also adds the following 
characters : the white axillaries, and the absence of white on 
the primaries t secondaries, and central upper tail-coverts. 
Range in Great Britain. — This handsome wader is now chiefly 
a migrant, but in the fens and marshes of our Eastern counties 
it used to breed, and might do so still in limited numbers if 
protection were afforded to the fevv birds which still struggle 
to nest occasionally in Lincolnshire and Norfolk. In the 
present day, however, but few Ruffs come to England in the 
spring, though the species is more plentiful in the autumn 
mio-rat'ion ; and it sometimes occurs even in winter. It 
mo'stly visits our eastern and southern coasts, and is some- 
times found on inland waters; but on the western side of 
England and Scotland, and in Ireland, it is much more rare. 
Range outside the British Islands — The Ruff breeds in Northern 
Europe and Siberia, and is also found nesting in Holland, 
Beleium, the north of France, as well as in Poland and parts 
of Germany. It migrates south to the Mediterranean and 
occurs on both sides of the African continent as far as Cape 
Colony. In the East its winter range extends to India, China, 
the Burmese Provinces, and as far as Borneo. Occasional 
instances of the occurrence of the species in the Faeroes and 
in Iceland have been recorded, and it sometimes visits North 
America, and has twice been met with in Barbados and once 
in Guiana. 
Hahits.— In autumn single examples are generally obtained 
on migration, and these are nearly always young birds of the 
year. At least that has been my experience, but the species is 
also known to collect in flocks, often of considerable size. 
In May the male begins to moult and to put on his elaborate 
breeding-dress, and nothing can be more amusing than to see 
one of these birds trying to attract the attention of a Reeve, 
T 
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