MACHETES PUGNAX.
Ruff.
Tringa pugnax, Linn. Faun. Suec., p. 62.
littorea, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 261.
rufescens, Bechst. Naturg. Deutschl., tom. iv. p. 332.
equestris et grenovicensis, Lath. Ind. Orn., tom. ii. pp. 730, 731.
variegata, Brünn, Ora. Bor., p. 54.
Totanus pugnax, Nilss.
Machetes pugnax, Cuv. Regn. Anim., tom. i. p. 490.
------------planiceps, Brehm, Yög. Deutschl., p. 671.
------------alticeps, Brehm, ib., p. 670, tab. 34. fig. 4.
Pavoncella pugnax, Leach, Syst. Cat. of Indig. Mamm. and Birds in Brit. Mus., p. 29.
Philomachus pugnax, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 1841, p. 89.
On taking up my pen to say a few words respecting the Ruff, I am fully aware o f the high interest which
attaches to the subject; for o f all the Sandpipers this bird is the most extraordinary, and possesses characters
unlike any other. In nearly all the species o f the great family o f Tringince the females are the largest of
the two sex es; but in the Ruff the females or Reeves are about half the size o f the males. During
spring, or the breeding-season, too, the male is adorned with the most profuse ornamentation, in the shape
of neck-plumes and ear-tufts, that can be conceived ; for not even among the Gallinee is this feature more
strongly developed; a t the same time a multitude o f fleshy tubercles appear on the face, which, as well as
the ruff and ear-tufts, disappear a t the close of the breeding-season. To this must be added that, while most
o f the Sandpipers are excellent for the table, the Ruff and his little partner the Reeve are especially so. For
all time since birds were eaten, and delicacies sought after for the delectation o f the epicure, these birds
have been highly esteemed, and have ever formed part o f the great feasts given by kings and other potentates,
and are still in high favour; for even at the moment I am penning these lines (May 1871) London
teems with examples for the enjoyment of those who can afford their purchase. Those which now appear
in our markets have been snared o r otherwise obtained in Holland. Formerly, even so late as the commencement
o f the present century, there was no need for this Dutch supply; for sufficient for the demand
could then be obtained in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. Now a solitary pair, o r at most a score, are all that
those counties are able to send us in a month. Ruffs and Reeves, in fact, like many o ther marsh-loving birds,
find their place there no more, the draining and clearing of the fens having deprived such localities o f the
conditions fitted for their existence ; the sites which afforded a natural home to the Bittern, the Spoonbill,
the Ruff and Reeve, and many other birds are now covered with waving corn, and afford an abundance
of cereal, instead of feathered, food for man. In many parts o f Holland, however, and particularly in the
northern portion o f Friesland, the Ruff and other marsh-birds still are found in their usual abundance, the
land therein not being capable o f improvement. There are many other parts o f the Continent in which
similar physical conditions occur, and where the Ruff is also found: these are some portions of France, Belgium,
the great swamps a t the mouth of the Danube, Turkey, and Russia. To all such places the Ruff
migrates in the month o f April, and, taking his stand upon some small hillock, like a knight o f old, challenges
his neighbour to mortal combat, until the females arrive and select the strongest, the vanquished getting a
mate o r not as the case may be. These matters settled, the nesting soon commences, and the marsh is
speedily studded over with nests, or rather with depressions in the ground, where the female hatches her
four beautiful eggs and rears her young, which, like most youthful Sandpipers, are a t first covered with a
variegated down, and are but feeble creatures. After some little time, however, they attain strength, and,
plumage taking the place of their first downy covering, they are able to exercise their pinions, and fly from
the place o f their birth to the shores o f the sea and other suitable localities, not only in every part o f Europe
and Africa, but in India and China. I do not mean that the Ruffs found in the two last-mentioned countries
are birds that have been bred in Holland, but that probably similar colonies also occur in Russia and Siberia;
so numerous is this remarkable bird. Besides the extraordinary development o f the frill in the Ruff, there
is another circumstance connected with it which renders it still more astonishing—namely, that it is all but
impossible to find two males in which it is similarly coloured; but whatever may be the colouring first
assumed, it is retained through each subsequent change. Thus, if the prevajling colour a t the first assumption
be red, it will be o f that hue a t the recurrence o f each successive breeding-season ; if black, black it will