ET7FF. 3 



and fly at each other like game-cocks, but, unlike those birds, they fight with the 

 bill and not with the foot. The warts on the side of the face of the Ruff only 

 remain during the spring, and doubtless serve as a protection against the sword- 

 thrusts of their adversaries. 



" Except during the month or so when the males ' hOl,' the Euff is not very 

 gregarious at its breeding-grounds ; solitary birds are often seen, but three or 

 four together is not unusual. No bird is more conspicuous than the Ruff during 

 the breeding-season. It frequents for the most part the swampy portion of the 

 moors, where its divers gay colours contrast strongly with the light green of the 

 wet grass, and where there is little or no cover. Even in places where the moors 

 are close to the sea, it does not feed on the sands, and seldom frequents the mud- 

 flats, but prefers to feed in fresh water, where it picks up worms, slugs, and insects 

 of all kinds. 



" After the male has lost his ruff he appears also to lose all interest in his 

 Reeves, and to take no part in the care of the family. The Reeve alone builds 

 the slight nest, incubates the eggs, and takes care of the young. The nest is on 

 the ground, in the middle of the swamp, where you have to splash through the 

 water among rushes, sedge, and coarse grass, in the midst of a clump of which a 

 depression is found, and roughly lined with dead grass and sedge. The nest is very 

 difficult to find, but the bird sits close and reveals her treasiu:es as she flies away. 

 Both the Ruff and the Reeve are very silent birds ; I have never heard them utter 

 a note, but on migration they are said to have a low call-note, like the wick of the 

 Sanderling, Phalarope, and Little Stint; 



" The eggs, in a full clutch always four in number, are somewhat similar to those 

 of the Great Snipe, indeed some are absolutely indistinguishable from them ; but 

 as a rule they are smaller and greener. The ground-colour varies from an almost 

 neutral pale grey to pale greenish grey ; the overlying spots are reddish brown, 

 and the underlying spots pale greyish brown. The spots are not quite so bold as 

 those on the eggs of the Great Snipe, but they are equal in size to those on most 

 Sandpipers' eggs, and are occasionally confluent at the large end. The eggs vary 

 in length from 1'8 to 1'6 inch, and in breadth from 1"3 to 1'15 inch." 



Mr. H. E. Dresser states that eggs of this species in his collection measure 

 from 1-75 by 1-25 inch to 1-65 by 1-17 inch. * 



The late Mr. E. T. Booth writes f : — " When I first visited Hickling Broad, 

 in the east of Norfolk, in May 1870, there were several Ruffs and Reeves on the 



* ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. viii. p. 97. 



t ' Eough Xotes on Birds observed in the British Islands,' vol. ii. 



