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THE RUFF. 
THE RUFF. ( Tringa pugnax.') 
The Ruff (says Mr. Wilson), no less than the family of 
sandpipers, with which it is associated in the systems, is 
almost equally given to wandering, being found, according 
to the season, dispersed in flocks throughout the principal 
parts of the cold and temperate climates of the northern 
hemisphere. In spring they arrive in great numbers on the 
coast of Holland, Germany, Flanders, and England; they 
are equally abundant in Sweden, occur in Denmark, Norway, 
Finmark, and Iceland, and breed in the great desolate 
marshes of Siberia and Lapland, as well as in milder latitudes. 
According to Skioldebrand, at Uleaborg, the capital of 
Ostrobothnia, they arrive in the spring, in such vast flocks, 
as almost to obscure the heavens, and resting on the floating 
ice, or on the banks of the rivers, fill the air with their con- 
fused cries; and the Ruffs, contending for their mates, 
appear like a pigmy army of pugilists. My friend, Mr. 
Cooper, about three years ago, obtained a specimen of the 
Ruff, from the shores of Long Island. From the rarity of 
this occurrence, we can only consider the Ruff, on the 
American coasts, as an accidental straggler ; and their visits 
are probably more common on the western than the eastern 
side of the continent. 
The Ruffs, like most of the birds, bred in high boreal 
latitudes, are under the necessity of migrating to milder 
climates, at the approach of winter. These northern hosts 
