Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/66

Rh 11 U E K U F The name of Rtulolstadt occurs in an inventory of the possessions of the abbey of HersfeKl in the year 800. After passing through the possession of the German emperor and of the rulers of Orlamiinde and Weimar, it came into the hands of the dukes of Schwarzburg in 1355. Its town rights were confirmed in 1404 ; and since 1599 it has been the residence of the ruling house. RUED A, LOPE DE. See DRAMA, vol. vii. p. 420. RUFF, a bird so called from the very beautiful and remarkable frill of elongated feathers that, just before the breeding-season, grow thickly round the neck of the male, who is considerably larger than the female, known as the Reeve. In many respects this species, the Tringa pugnax of Linnaeus and the Machetes jmgnajc of the majority of modern ornithologists, is one of the most singular in existence, and yet its singularities have been very ill appreciated by zoological writers in general. 1 These singularities would require almost a volume to Ruff. describe properly. The best account of them is unques- tionably that given in 1813 by Montagu (Suppl. Om. Dictionary), who seems to have been particularly struck by the extraordinary peculiarities of the species, and, to investigate them, expressly visited the fens of Lincolnshire, possibly excited thereto by the example of Pennant, whose information, personally collected there in 1 769, was of a kind to provoke further inquiry, while Daniel (Rural Sports, iii. p. 234) had added some other particulars, and subsequently Graves in 1816 repeated in the same district the experience of his predecessors. Since that time the great changes produced by the drainage of the fen-country have banished this species from nearly the whole of it, so that Lubbock (Obs. Fauna of Norfolk, pp. 68-73) and Mr Stevenson (Birds of Norfolk, ii. pp. 261271) can alone be cited as modern witnesses of its habits in England, 1 Mr Darwin, though frequently citing (Descent of Man and Sexual Selection, i pp. 270, 306 ; ii. pp. 41, 42, 48, 81, 84, 100, 111) the Ruff as a witness in various capacities, most unfortunately seems never to have had ita peculiarities presented to him in such a form that he could fully perceive their bearings. However, the significance of the lesson that the Ruff may teach was hardly conceivable before he began to write ; but the fact is not the less to be regretted that he never elucidated its importance, not only in regard to " Sexual Selection," but more especially with respect to "Polymorphism." He appears not to have consulted Montagu's original account of this bird, and seems to have known it only by the excerpt given by Macgillivray, in which were not included the important passages on the extreme diversity of plumage exhibited by the males that author passing over this wonderful peculiarity in a paragraph of less than a score of lines. while the trade of netting or snaring Ruffs, and fattening them for the table has for many years practically ceased. The cock-bird, when out of his nuptial attire, or, to use the fenman's expression, when he has not " his show on," and the hen at all seasons, offer no very remarkable deviation from ordinary Sandpipers, and outwardly 2 there is nothing, except the unequal size of the two sexes, to rouse suspicion of any abnormal peculiarity. But when spring conies all is changed. In a surprisingly short time the feathers clothing the face of the male are shed, and their place is taken by papillx or small caruncles of bright yellow or pale pink. From each side of his head sprouts a tuft of stiff curled feathers, giving the appearance of long ears, while the feathers of the throat change colour, and beneath and around it sprouts the frill or ruff already mentioned as giving the bird his name. The feathers which form this remarkable adornment, quite unique among birds, are, like those of the "ear-tufts," stiff and incurved at the end, but much longer measuring more than two inches. They are closely arrayed, capable of depression or elevation, and form a shield to the front of the breast impenetrable by the bill of a rival. 3 Men-, extraordinary than this, from one point of view, is the great variety of coloration that obtains in these temporary outgrowths. It has often been said that no one ever saw two Ruffs alike. That is perhaps an over-statement ; but, considering the really few colours that the birds exhibit, the variation is something marvellous, so that fifty examples or more may be compared without finding a very 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, and thus produce a combination of diversity. The colours range from deep black to pure white, passing through chestnut or bay, and many tints of brown or ashy-grey, while often the feathers are more or less closely barred with some darker shade, and the black is very frequently glossed with violet, blue, or green or, in addition, spangled with white, grey, or gold-colour. The white, on the other hand, is not rarely freckled, streaked, or barred with grey, rufous- brown, or black. 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 the still wider experience and if possible more carefully conducted observation of Mr Bartlett, that every Ruff in each successive year 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 in his wedding-garment a lesson that might possibly be applied to many other birds. The white frill is said to be the rarest. That all this wonderful "show "is the consequence of the polygamous habit of the Ruff can scarcely be doubted. No other species of Limicoline bird has, so far as is known, any tendency to it. Indeed, in many species of Limirolse, as the Dotterel, the GODWITS (vol. x. p. 720), 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, state that the Ruffs, in England, were far more numerous than the Reeves; and their testimony can hardly be doubted ; though in Germany Naumann ( Vdg. Deutschlaiufs, vii. p. margin of the sternum, as long ago remarked by Nitzsch. 8 This "ruff" has been compared to that of Elizabethan or Jacobean costume, but it is essentially different, since that was open in front and widest and most projecting behind, whereas the bird's decorative apparel is most developed in front and at the sides and scarcely exists behind.
 * Internally there is a great difference in the form of the posterior