RUFF. 272 
by the fact that Mr. Lubbock once saw seventy or 
eighty together in a marsh near Burgh Castle, at the 
top of Breydon. These flocks, however, do not appear 
to have frequented the ooze like the godwits and cur- 
lews, but “the whole of their time was spent in the 
marshes,”’ where they preferred a “wet swampy part 
of the fen,” though in the breeding season they chose 
the drier parts. 
Both Pennant and Montagu have described at some 
length the method of fatting these birds for table, and 
the prices given even in former days show the high ap- 
preciation in which they were held as a delicacy ; it is 
strange, however, that we find no mention of them 
either in the Northumberland ‘“‘ Household Book” or 
in the “ Accounts ”’ of the L’Estranges, of Hunstanton. 
In Pennant’s time fat ruffs would sell for two 
shillings or two shillings and sixpence a piece; and 
Montagu found that although a Lincolnshire fen-man 
received only ten shillings a dozen, the “feeder” asked 
as much as two guineas,* and never less than thirty 
shillings. In Norfolk Mr. Lubbock gives the price of 
freshly caught birds, at the time of his publication 
(1845) as six shillings a couple, but says that twenty 
years before they fetched only tenpence or a shilling a 
piece. 
Several couples are not unfrequently to be seen in 
the Norwich Market early in May, which have been sent 
down from London for sale, but these, as far as I have 
been able to ascertain, are all procured in Holland. 
* “ At the present day,” writes Folkard (1864) “the price paid 
for fattened ruffs is often as much as four guineas per dozen,” but 
the system of feeding either ruffs or godwits for the London 
market has almost, if not entirely ceased. In Leadenhall Market 
black-tailed godwits may now be purchased at eighteen-pence 
each and ruffs at a shilling, all imported from Holland, 
