BUFF.
MACHETES PUGNAX {Linn.).
Tringa pugnax, Linn. S. N. 1. p. 247 (1766). _
Machetes pugnax, Naum. vii. p. 5°2 Macg. \\. p- >
Hewitson, ii. p. 345; Yarr. ed. 4, m. p. 426; Dresser,
viii. p. 87.
Combattant, French; Kampf-Hahn, German; Combati-
This singular bird is one of the many species that
have been driven from their former breeding-places m
England by the draining and reclamation of the marshes
and fen-lands in which they were at one time abundant;
a very few pairs of Ruffs and Reeves, however, still nest
occasionally in East Norfolk, but, owing to the greed of
collectors, and lax administration of the law, are seldom
allowed to rear, or even to hatch out their broods,
and our birds are now principally known as autumnal
visitors to the sea-coast and adjacent meadow-lands,
stray birds being occasionally met with inland at considerable
distances from salt water.
The Ruff is polygamous, and consequently most pugnacious,
but, as far as I have been able to observe,