266 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
the North river, near Yarmouth, on the 2nd of October, 
1863, is the latest as to date that I have known in 
autumn, and in no single instance am I aware of this 
species having been observed during the winter months.* 
Mr. Harting’s specimen, which is particularly referred 
to in his “ Birds of Middlesex,” was feeding alone at 
the time, and allowed of so near an approach before it 
rose that he could observe its actions minutely. In 
walking, he tells me, it picked its way daintily along 
the “rand,” the body carried horizontally, and with 
trailed wings, the head nodding at every step. When 
flushed it uttered no cry, but flew lazily away, and 
pitched again within forty yards, when he followed 
it up and secured it. It was in fine plumage and very 
fat, the stomach filled with the remains of small beetles 
mixed with minute particles of grit. 
With the exception of Colonel Montagu’s account 
of this species, so extensively quoted by Yarrell, Mr. 
Lubbock’s observations on the habits of the ruff and 
reeve are both the fullest and the most trustworthy with 
which I am acquainted, and these having a peculiar 
local interest, whilst the “Fauna of Norfolk” is out of 
print, I feel no hesitation in giving copious extracts 
therefrom. 
The marked decrease in their numbers of late 
years he attributes to “the beauty of the bird having 
caused it to be more than ever sought after. <A 
ruff ‘with his show on,’ which is the provincial 
phrase by which the fen-men here designate one of 
these birds in the breeding plumage, is exactly the 
creature which all bird-preservers eagerly snap up;” 
* In Ireland where, according to Thompson (“ Birds of Ireland,” 
vol. ii., p. 230), this species is not unfrequent in autumn but rare 
in spring, and is not known to have been a resident at any time, 
several specimens have been killed in October, and even as late 
as the 29th of November. 
