430 SCOLOPACID.^. 



pulley, is easily pulled over the birds within reach, and rarely 

 fails taking all within its grasp; but in order to give the pull 

 the greatest velocity, the net, if circumstances will permit, 

 is so placed as to fold over with the wind ; however, there 

 are some fowlers w^ho prefer pulling it against the wind for 

 Plovers. As the RufFs feed chiefly by night, they repair to 

 the frequented hill at the dawn of day, nearly all at the same 

 time, and the fowler makes his first pull according to circum- 

 stances, takes out his birds, and prepares for the stragglers 

 who traverse the fens and have no adopted hill ; these are 

 caught singly, being enticed by the stuffed birds. These 

 stufled skins are sometimes so managed as to be movable, 

 by means of a long string, so that a jerk represents a jump, 

 a motion very common among Ruffs, who at the sight of a 

 wanderer flying by, will leap, or flit a yard off the ground, 

 by that means inducing those on wing to come and alight by 

 him. 



"When the Reeves begin to lay, both those and the Ruffs 

 are least shy, and so easily caught, that a fowler assured us 

 he could with certainty take every bird in the fen in the 

 season. The females continue this boldness, and their 

 temerity increases as they become broody ; on the contrary, 

 we found the males at that time could not be approached 

 within the distance of gun-shot. The females, the Reeves, 

 begin laying their eggs the first or second week in May; and 

 we have found their nest with young as early as the 3rd of 

 June. By this time the males cease to go to hlU.'"* 



Montagu took the trouble of transporting several of these 

 birds, both males and females, with him from Lincolnshire 

 into Devonshire; some of them lived three years in captivity, 

 and one of them four years; the changes they underwent will 

 be noticed under the description of plumage. Montagu says, 

 that "in confinement the males paid no attention to the 

 Reeves, except to drive them from their food ; they never 

 attempted to dispute with any other species, but would feed 

 out of the same dish with Land Rails, and other birds con- 

 fined with them, in perfect amity." 



* Abridged from tlic Supplement to the Ornitliological Dictionary (1813). 



