294 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



occasionally darting at one another, like young gamecocks 

 or pigeons ; but there is never a blow given, never a sound 

 uttered — 'tis merely a rival exhibition given before the ladies. 

 And every fenman who knows them will tell you what you 

 have seen is the usual proceeding. Even if only one bird 

 be present, he will dance as usual, not confining himself 

 to any circle, but running down the wall or over the marsh, 

 as his fancy listeth. And now you know another " truth " is 

 no longer true. 



How they arrange matters I know not, but one ruff takes 

 unto himself many wives, serving them all. An old gunner 

 once saw a reeve serve five wives " of a morning." He is a 

 sensible polygamist. 



In April, too, you may see, perchance, small bunches 

 of these birds flying about the marshlands, disappearing for 

 days and reappearing as suddenly, though they never all dis- 

 appear, but the bulk go — it all depending upon the season — 

 at the end of May, when the few remaining reeves make their 

 nests, if the weather be fine, warm, and still — merely making 

 a cup-shaped depression in a tussock of grass or sedge 

 growing amid short grasses upon soft marshes near the water, 

 where live the insects upon which they live. The nest re- 

 sembles a red-leg's, with this distinction, that the reeve 

 always has one or more circular runs to the nest, like a 

 mallard, and pulls the stuff over herself, hke a waterhen. 

 There she lays her four eggs, precious gifts of the gods,, 

 resembling those of the red-leg, only darker and differently 

 blotched, and " squatter." The difference is never for- 

 gotten once the eggs are compared, but it is difficult to 

 describe.* And all this time the ruff has been growing 

 his fine Elizabethan collar, with its dots of many-coloured 

 " sealing-wax," each bird being differently marked ; so say 

 the fenmen, who have shot hundreds. 



And during the monotonous sitting period — twenty-eight 

 days — when the reeve sits so closely that you may at times 

 * Reeves' eggs were taken in this district in 1890, and young seen in 1892. 



