268 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
a very short period, when the ruffs, having broken up 
their ‘hill,’ disperse themselves about the marsh in 
search of the reeves. At this time the distance is extra- 
ordinary from which a ruff will come to a reeve whilst 
flying in circles round her nest. I have known a reeve 
thus put in motion bring three or four ruffs from the 
other side of Heigham Sounds, a very large sheet of 
water. This time of activity, however, is soon over ; 
the nuptial plumage then falls off; the bird gives up 
the character of Lothario, and seems chiefly to study 
how he may most conveniently get fat before his 
autumnal migration. Indeed, the collar of long feathers 
worn by the ruff in spring, though beautiful, appears 
to cause the bird much inconvenience. The flight of a 
ruff in full plumage is like that of the fresh-arrived and 
tired woodcock, roused early in the morning after a 
flight which completed his last stage from Scandinavia ; 
it is laboured, slow, and straight. No sooner does the 
bird get rid of these appendages than he dashes forward 
with all the buoyancy and swiftness of the rest of the 
genus. There cannot be a greater contrast than the 
swift-glancing, powerful flight of the reeve, and the 
laboured fettered motions of her partner during the 
breeding season.” Colonel Montagu was evidently 
much struck with the power exhibited by practised 
fowlers of distinguishing a ruff amongst the herbage 
at an almost incredible distance, but on this point 
Mr. Lubbock remarks, “even a novice is surprised at 
the distance at which these birds, upright and motion- 
less, are visible to the eye.” 
The “hill” as it is termed is simply a raised situa- 
tion (on the bank of a marsh dyke for instance) upon 
described in “The Experienced Fowler” (London, 1704, 18 mo., 
p- 18) :—** You may shoot a lark or some other bird, take out the 
entrails, stuff him with tow, and dry him in an oven, his wings set 
in a flying posture; and so you may be furnished at all times.” 
