RUFF. 269 



wliicli, at the nuptial period, tlie ruffs assemble, and 

 each, bird taking- up his own position, resents the least 

 intrusion on his domain, whilst the favors of the reeves 

 form a further source of contention. Such a congre- 

 gation is termed a " play of ruffs." The same hill is 

 not always used, but the birds will " sometimes hill in 

 one marsh, and the next season resort to a different 

 situation entirely." Mr. Lubbock, evidently does not 

 consider their combats as in any degree formidable, 

 but rather to "threaten great things (as may be seen 

 amongst dunghill chickens when they ruffle their 

 feathers at each other without striking) than to perform 

 much." On one occasion, and one only, he ^' counted 

 eighteen ruffs upon one ' hill ' in the Potter Heigham 

 Marshes;" and when thus collected the birds keep 

 continually "running to and fro, fighting and flut- 

 tering their wings until they quite flatten down the 

 grass." If crowded at all on a hill there was con- 

 tention, "but if there was plenty of room for each 

 to walk about, they seemed to agree tolerably. The 

 arrival of a fresh ruff upon a hill where some were already 

 assembled, always caused unusual confusion for a minute 

 or two,"^ but he " never heard of a ruff being taken in a 

 marsh through injuries received in battle." 



Of the method adopted for capturing them in the 

 marshes, and the numbers so taken, Mr. Lubbock 

 says " nets were never used to take these birds in 

 Norfolk," but snares made of horsehair, by which means 

 a local fowler assured him "he once, and once only, took 



* In confinement Pennant found the same contention amongst 

 the males, each bird taking up its own stand in the room as it 

 would in the fen, and the least encroachment on their respective 

 circles invariably caused a fight. "They make use of the same 

 action in fighting as a cock, place their bills to the ground and 

 spread their rufis." The same thing may be witnessed almost any 

 year in one of the enclosures in the Zoological Gardens. 



