RUFF. 429 



of a game cock : the head is lowered and the beak held in 

 a horizontal direction ; the ruff, and indeed every feather, 

 more or less distended, the former sweeping the ground as a 

 shield to defend the more tender parts ; the auricles erected, 

 and the tail partly spread, upon the whole assuming a most 

 ferocious aspect. When either could obtain a firm hold with 

 the bill a leap succeeded, accompanied by a stroke of the 

 wing ; but they rarely injured each other. 



** Few Ruffs, comparatively speaking, are taken in the 

 spring, as the old birds frequently pine, and will not readily 

 fatten. The principal time is in September, when the young 

 birds are on the wing ; these are infinitely more delicate for 

 the table, more readily submit to confinement, and are less 

 inclined to fight. If this plan was generally enforced by the 

 proprietors of fen-land, or made a bye-law amongst them- 

 selves, the breed would not be so reduced ; but there are 

 still fowlers who make two seasons, and by catching the old 

 birds in the spring, especially the females, verify the fable 

 of the goose and the golden eggs : the destruction of every 

 female in the breeding-season is the probable loss of four 

 young. 



" The manner of taking these birds is somewhat different 

 in the two seasons : in the spring the Ruffs liill, as it is 

 termed, that is, they assemble upon a rising spot of ground, 

 contiguous to where the Reeves propose to deposit their 

 eggs; there they take their stand, at a small distance from 

 each other, and contend for the females — the nature of 

 polygamous birds. This hill, or place of resort for love and 

 battle, is sought for by the fowler, who from habit discovers 

 it by the birds having trodden the turf somewhat bare, though 

 not in a circle as usually described. When a hill has been 

 discovered, the fowler repairs to the spot before the break of 

 day, spreads his net, places his decoy birds, and takes his 

 stand at the distance of about one hundred and forty yards, 

 or more, according to the shyness of the birds. The net is 

 what is termed a single clap-net, about seventeen feet long 

 and six feet wide, with a pole at each end ; this, by means of 

 uprights fixed in the ground, and each furnished with a 



