f n E R U F ?. 



:^ of the first fc-male he hears di.speh his fearg, and ro- 

 a^'akcus his courage, and he renews the conflict if anotii-sj 

 opponent appears. These skirmishes are repeated cverj 

 morning and evening till their dc})arture, in May. 



As soon as the Reeves begin to lay, both those and their 

 iDitos lay aside their wildness and desire of hostility, so 

 that the whole may be caught with little effort. As the 

 attachment of the females to their charge increases, with 

 the progress of incubation, they become still more embold- 

 lued in its defence. At length, the period of excitement 

 subsiding, the males, dropping their nuptial plumage, sink 

 into tame and undistinguishable wanderers, and seceding 

 from the Reeves and their brood, depart to their hybernal 

 seclusion, in some distant country. 



The females, associated in numbers, commence laying 

 about the first or second week in May, and the young appear 

 early in June. The nest is formed of grass, in a tussock 

 of the same, in the most swampy part of the marsh. The 

 eggs, four in number, very like those of the snipe, as well 

 as the nest, are however larger, of a pale greenish hue, with 

 R great number of small spots and points of dusky and 

 brown. The Reeve is so remarkably attached to her eggs, 

 that after being caught on the nest and carried some dis- 

 tanoe, on being liberated, she weut again to her eggs, as if 

 nothing had molested her. Indeed the attachment and ecu 

 ?3^e of the female for her young, seem scarcely less re 

 ficar^^-ble than the pugnacious valour of the Ruff. 



