The Ruffs were originally natives of the northern portion of the Eastern Hemisphere, but are now occasionally met with in North America. During their migrations they not only visit every country of Europe and Asia, but the entire African continent, usually taking up their abode on extensive bogs or marshy plains, and frequently appearing in the immediate neighbourhood of the sea, where they often mingle with the busy hosts that are ever ready to seize upon the rich and varied store of food left behind by the receding tide. Naumann asserts, however, that this species never remains near or ventures into the water, but after joining in the busy scene for a short time, always returns to its usual haunts. Unlike other Sandpipers, these birds are met with far inland, where they not only dwell upon the banks of rivers, but wander into the plains and cultivated districts. In Central Europe they usually arrive in flocks, about May, and begin to leave about July and August, travelling by night, and pursuing their course in long lines that sometimes assume a wedge-like arrangement, the males journeying apart from the females. The extensive parties seen by us in the Soudan consisted almost exclusively of females, from which fact we concluded that the males do not often migrate so far south as Africa. The females are the first to seek and the last to leave the winter quarters, and yet strange to say, they generally return to their last summer's abode in company with their former mates. Before and after the breeding season, male and female are scarcely distinguishable, either in appearance or demeanour; but during that period the former exhibit an excitement that is quite without a parallel. Water insects, beetles, and worms, with seeds of many kinds, afford them the means of subsistence, and for these they seek principally at early morning or evening, visiting certain spots with great regularity, and keeping strictly within a limited hunting ground. Whilst thus engaged they move leisurely, and with conscious dignity, keeping steadily and quietly at work, and only betraying their presence by a weak hoarse cry, as they rise with light and hovering wing into the air. At the approach of night they become somewhat more lively, and indulge in sportive flights in company with their feathered brethren. No sooner, however, has the period of incubation set in than the pacific disposition of these birds appears to undergo a complete change, and the males commence a series of fierce encounters, arising not merely from a feeling of rivalry or jealousy, but respecting such trifles as the possession of a worm or the choice of a resting-place. Whether in their native haunts or confined in a cage, and whether females be concerned in the matter or not, the same restless desire to attack and injure each other takes possession of the male birds, who, in their wild state, carry on their battles in regular fighting-grounds, employed year after year for the same purpose.