26 ' The Irish Naturalist. March, 



By the middle of ]\Iay the two male birds were (or appeared 

 to be) in all the splendour of their spring " show," and a 

 very interesting state of affairs had been established. The 

 two Ruffs (as might be expected) were quite unlike, the 

 frill of one of them being nearly black, and that of the 

 other orange-red. On May 14th I found that they had 

 divided the enclosure between them — or rather each had 

 appropriated a quarter, so that they faced one another 

 diagonally, the black-frilled Ruff being in the N.W. quarter 

 and the red-frilled in the S.E. How they arrived at their 

 scheme of partition I cannot say ; but the quarter that 

 belonged to the black-frilled Ruff was also inhabited by 

 both the Reeves, and the red-frilled Ruff was living in 

 lonely state. 



Nothing could be clearer than that the black-frilled Ruff 

 was the master-bird. Neither of the two Ruffs, except 

 for feeding purposes, seemed ever to leave his own area ; 

 but the dark bird was fond of menacing his red neighbour, 

 sometimes advancing with outstretched neck and vibrating 

 frill to the very edge of his domain, though he did no^ go 

 beyond the boundary — while the orange-frilled bird would 

 replv to the defiance by a corresponding gesture, but 

 remained fixed in the centre of his own area, so that no 

 combat could come off. 



Some interesting scenes occurred at feeding-time, as the 

 trough to which all the birds had to resort lay outside both 

 the appropriated areas (in the N.E. quarter of the square), 

 and was further from the dark Ruff's than from the red 

 Ruff's boundary. When the dark Ruff wished to feed he 

 was accompanied to the trough by both his waives—who 

 would naturally be hungry, as he never allowed them to 

 leave his corner bv themselves. The red Ruff, however, 

 sometimes took advantage of these occasions to slip into 

 the black Ruff's area, where he would be found on the 

 return of black Ruff and party. Of course, as soon as 

 this happened, the black Ruff made an angry charge ; but 

 the intruder never waited to be attacked, and was " off 

 like a shct." 



This incident at any rate proved that, whether any 

 fighting had taken place or not, the black Ruff was known 



