THE RUFF. 133 



in April, and before their arrival at their breeding place. 

 In the marshes of Montreuil-sur-Mer, where he had often 

 occasion to follow them, he remarks, that their first object is 

 to pair, or rather to fight with their rivals, while the feeble 

 screams of the females rouse and exasperate their hostility, 

 and their battles are often long, obstinate, and sometimes 

 bloody. The vanquished betakes himself to flight, but the 

 cry of the first female he hears, dispels his fears, and re- 

 awakens his courage, and he renews the conflict if another 

 opponent appears. These skirmishes are repeated every 

 morning and evening till their departure, in May. 



As soon as the Reeves begin to lay, both those and their 

 mates lay aside their wildness and desire of hostility, so 

 that the whole may be caught with little effort. As the 

 attachment of the females to their charge increases, with 

 the progress of incubation, they become still more embold- 

 ened in its defence. At length, the period of excitement 

 subsiding, the males, dropping their nuptial plumage, sink 

 into tame and undistinguishable wanderers, and seceding 

 from the Reeves and their brood, depart to their hybernal 

 seclusion, in some distant country. 



The females, associated in numbers, commence laying 

 about the first or second week in May, and the young appear 

 early in June. The nest is formed of grass, in a tussock 

 of the same, in the most swampy part of the marsh. The 

 eggs, 4 in number, very like those of the snipe, as well as 

 the nest, are however larger, of a pale greenish hue, with 

 a great number of small spots and points of dusky, and 

 brown. The Reeve is so remarkably attached to her eggs, 

 that after being caught on the nest and carried some distance, 

 on being liberated, she went again to her eggs, as if nothing 

 had molested her. Indeed the attachment and courage of 

 the female for her young, seems scarcely less remarkable 

 than the pugnaceous valor of the Ruff. 

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