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RUFF
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RUFF , a See also:bird so called from the very beautiful and remark-able frill of elongated feathers that, just before the breeding-See also:season, grow thickly See also:round the See also:neck of the male, who is considerably larger than the See also:female, known as the See also:reeve. In many respects this See also:species, the Tringa pugnax of See also:Linnaeus and the Machetes pugnax of See also:modern ornithologists, is one of the most singular in existence. The best See also:account is that given in 1813 by G. See also:Montagu (Suppl. Orn. See also:Dictionary), who seems to have been struck by the peculiarities of the species, and, to investigate them, visited the See also:fens of See also:Lincolnshire, possibly excited thereto by the example of T. See also:Pennant, whose See also:information, collected there in 1769, was of a See also:kind to provoke further inquiry, while See also:Daniel (Rural See also:Sports, iii. p. 234) had added some other particulars, and subsequently G. See also:Graves in 1816 repeated in the same See also:district the experience of his predecessors. Since that See also:time the See also:great changes produced by the drainage of the fen-See also:country have banished this species from nearly the whole of it, so that R. Lubbock (Obs. See also:Fauna of See also:Norfolk, pp. 68–73) and H. Steven-son (Birds of Norfolk, ii. pp. 261–271) can alone be cited as modern witnesses of its habits in See also:England, while the See also:trade of netting or snaring ruffs and fattening them for the table has for many years practically ceased.
The See also:cock bird, when, to use the fenman's expression, he has
not " his show on," and the See also:hen at all seasons, offer no very remarkable deviation from See also:ordinary sandpipers; outwardly' there is nothing, except the unequal See also:size of the two sexes, to rouse suspicion of any abnormal peculiarity. But when See also:spring comes all is changed. In a surprisingly See also:short time the feathers clothing the See also:face of the male are See also:shed, and their See also:place is taken by papillae or small caruncles of See also:bright yellow or See also:pale See also:pink. From each See also:side of his See also:head sprouts a tuft of stiff curled feathers, while the feathers of the See also:throat See also:change See also:colour, and beneath and around it sprouts the frill or ruff already mentioned as giving the bird his name. The feathers which See also:form this remarkable adornment are, like those of the " See also:ear-tufts," stiff and incurved at the end, but much longer—measuring more than 2 in. They are closely arrayed, capable of depression or See also:elevation, and form a See also:shield to the front of the See also:breast impenetrable by the See also:bill of a See also:rival.2 More extraordinary than this, from one point of view, is the great variety of coloration that obtains in these temporary outgrowths. Considering the really few See also:colours that the birds exhibit, the variation is some-thing marvellous, so that fifty examples may be compared without finding a very See also:close resemblance between any two of
them, while the individual variation is increased by the " ear-tufts," which generally differ in colour from the frill. The colours range from deep See also:black to pure See also: In some examples the barring is most regularly concentric, in others more or less broken-up or undulating, and the latter may be said of the streaks. It was ascertained by Montagu, and has since been confirmed by A. D. See also:Bartlett, that every ruff assumes tufts and frill exactly the same in colour and markings as those he wore in the preceding season; and thus, polymorphic as is the male as a species, as an individual he is unchangeable. The white frill is said to be the rarest, and birds exhibiting it have white necks even in See also:winter. That all this wonderful " show " is the consequence of the polygamous See also:habit of the ruff can scarcely be doubted. No ' Internally there is a great difference in the form of the posterior margin of the sternum, as See also:long ago remarked by See also:Nitzsch. 2 This " ruff " has been compared to that of Elizabethan or Jacobean See also:costume, but it is essentially different, since that was open in front and widest and most projecting behind, whereas the bird's decorative See also:apparel is most See also:developed in front and at the sides and scarcely exists behind.819 other species of Limicoline bird has, so far as is known, any tendency to it. Indeed, in many species of Limicolae, as the dotterel, the godwits (q.v.), phalaropes and perhaps some others, the female is larger and more brightly coloured than the male, who in such cases seems to take upon himself some at least of the domestic duties. Both Montagu and Graves, to say nothing of other writers, See also:state that the ruffs, in England, were far more numerous than the See also:reeves; and their testimony can hardly be doubted; though in See also:Germany J. F. See also:Naumann (Vog. Deutschland's, vii. p. 544) considers that this is only the See also:case in the earlier See also:part of the season, and that later the See also:females greatly outnumber the See also:males. By no one have the ruff's characteristics been more happily described than by J. Wolley, in a communication to W. C. Hewitson (Eggs of Brit. Birds, 3d ed., p. 346), as follows: " The ruff, like other See also:fine gentlemen, takes much more trouble with his courtship than with his duties as a See also:husband. Whilst the reeves are sitting on their eggs, scattered about the swamps, he is to be seen far away flitting about in flocks, and on the ground dancing and sparring with his companions. Before they are See also:con-fined to their nests, it is wonderful with what devotion the females are attended by their See also:gay followers, who seem to be each trying to be more attentive than the See also:rest.. Nothing can be more expressive of humility and ardent love than some of the actions of the ruff. He throws himself prostrate on the ground, with every See also:feather on his See also:body See also:standing up and quivering; but he seems as if he were afraid of coming too near his See also:mistress. If she flies off, he starts up in an instant to arrive before her at the next place of alighting, and all his actions are full of See also:life and spirit. But none of his spirit is expended in care for his See also:family. He never comes to see after an enemy. In the [See also:Lapland] marshes, a reeve now and then flies near with a scarcely audible ka-ka-kuk; but she seems a dull bird, and makes no noisy attack on an invader." The breeding-grounds of the ruff extend from Great See also:Britain across N. See also:Europe and See also:Asia; but the birds become less numerous towards the E. They winter in See also:India, reaching even See also:Ceylon, and See also:Africa as far as the Cape of See also:Good See also:Hope. The ruff also occasionally visits See also:Iceland, and there are several well-authenticated records of its occurrence on the E. See also:coast of the See also:United States, while an example is stated (See also:Ibis, 1875, p. 332) to have been received from the N. of S. See also:America. (A. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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