COMMON RUFF. 177 



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 alive in Dublin, having lost only 

 three dozen in so long a journey, confined and greatly 

 crowded as they were in baskets, which were carried upon 

 two horses. 



" Nothing can more strongly evince the hardy constitution 

 of these birds, than the performance of such a journey, so 

 soon after capture, and necessarily fed with a food wholly 

 new to them : and yet a certain degree of care and attention 

 is requisite to preserve, and more especially to fatten them ; 

 for out of the seventeen dozen delivered at the castle of 

 Dublin, not more than two dozen were served up to table, 

 doubtless entirely owing to a want of knowledge or attention 

 of the feeder under whose care they had been placed. 



" Few Ruffs, comparatively speaking, are now taken in the 

 spring, as the old birds frequently pine, and will not readily 

 fatten. The principal time is in September, when the young 

 birds are fled ; these are infinitely more delicate for the 

 table, more readily submit to confinement, and. are less in- 

 clined to fight. If this plan were generally enforced by the 

 proprietors of fen land, or made a bye-law amongst them- 

 selves, the breed would not be so reduced ; but there are 

 still some fowlers who make two seasons, and thus by 

 catching the old birds in the spring, especially the females, 

 verify the fable of the Goose and the golden eggs ; the 

 destruction of every female in the breeding season is the 

 probable loss of four young. 



" The manner of taking these birds is somewhat different 

 in the two seasons : in the spring the Ruffs kill, as it is 

 termed, that is, they assemble upon a rising spot of ground 

 contiguous to where the Reeves propose to deposit their 

 eggs ; there they take their stand, at a small distance from 

 each other, and contend for the females — the nature of poly- 

 gamous birds. This hill, or place of resort for love and 

 battle, is sought for by the fowler, who, from habit, dis- 

 covers it by the birds having trodden the turf somewhat 

 bare, though not in a circle as usually described. 



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