TirE RUFF. 



In consequence of the ornamental plumes on tlie neck during the breeding season, the 

 male is called the Rufl"; while the female, to whose attire no such addition is made, is 

 termed the Reeve. 



Montague says : " The long feathers on the neck and sides of the head, in the male, 

 that constitute the rufl" and am-icles, are of short duration, for they are scarcely completed 

 in the month of May, and begin to fall the latter end of Jime. The change of these 

 singular parts is accompanied by a complete change of plumage ; the stronger colours, 

 such as purple, chestnut, and some others, vanish at the same time, so that in their winter 

 dress they become more generally alike, from being less varied in their plumage ; but we 

 observed that those who had the ruff more or less white, retained that colour about the 

 neck after the summer or autumnal moulting. We noticed that iu confinement their 

 annual changes never varied ; every spring produced the same coloured ruff and other 

 feathers, but the tubercles on the face never appeared. A yoimg male that was taken 

 destitute of a ruff in the breeding season, whose plumage was mostly cinereous, except 

 about the head and neck, put on the rutf in continement the next spring for the first 

 time, which was large, and the feathers were a mixture of white and chestnut ; the 

 scapulars and breast also marked with chestnut ; and in the succeeding autumnal moulting 

 he re-assumed his former cinereous plumage." 



The same writer observes, that " the trade of catching ruffs is confined to few persons, 

 and scarcely repays their trouble and the expense of nets. These people live in obsciire 

 places on the verge of the fens, and are found out with difficulty ; for few, if any bii-ds 

 are ever bought but by those who make a trade of fattening them for the table. Mr. 

 Towns, the noted feeder at Spalding, assures us his family had been a hundi-ed years in 

 the trade ; that they had supplied George II. and many noble families iu the kingdom. 

 He undertook, at the desire of the late Marquis of Townsend, when that nobleman was 

 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, to take some ruffs to that country ; and actually set off" with 

 twenty-seven dozen from Lincolnshire, left seven dozen at the Duke of Devonshire's at 

 Chatsworth, continued his route across the kingdom to Holyhead, and delivered seventeen 

 dozen aHve in Dublin, ha%-ing lost only three dozen in so long a journey, confined and 

 greatly crowded as they were in baskets, which were carried upon two horses. During 

 our stay at Spalding, we were shown into a room where there were about seven dozen 



Tringa Vanellus. Slaclietes Pagnax. — Cuv. 



