| Summary: | obtained age-specific profiles or repeated measures of the same individuals at different stages in their yearly cycles. In vertebrates, immune fuction is generally divided into innate and adaptive immunity; adaptive immunity is further divided into humoral and cell-mediated immunity (CMI) (Roitt et al. 1996). Here, we examine withinindividual changes in CMI between breeding and nonbreeding seasons, and age-related patterns outside the breeding season in ruff (Philomachus pugnax), a species with two types of male that may differ in their lifehistory strategies. The ruff has females and two genetically distinct types of males: ‘independents ’ and ‘satellites ’ (Hogan-Warburg 1966; Van Rhijn 1991; Lank et al. 1995, 1999). Independents, which constitute ca. 84 % of males, establish leks
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