576 SCOLOPACID.E. 



of Ireland,* to take some Ruffs to tliat country, and actually 

 set off with twenty seven dozen from Lincolnshire, left seven 

 dozen at the Duke of Devonshire's at Chatsworth, continued 

 his route across the kingdom to Holyhead, and delivered 

 seventeen dozen alive in Dublin, having lost only three 

 dozen in so long a journey, confined and greatly crowded as 

 they were in baskets, which were carried upon two horses. 

 During our stay at Spalding we were shown into a room 

 where there were about seven dozen males and a dozen fe- 

 males, and of the former there were not two alike. Our 

 intrusion to choose some birds, drove them from their stands, 

 and compelling some to trespass upon the premises of others, 

 produced many battles. It is a remarkable character of these 

 birds that they feed most greedily the moment they are 

 taken ; a basin of bread and milk, or boiled wheat placed 

 before them is instantly contended for, and so pugnacious is 

 their disposition, that they would starve in the midst of 

 plenty, if several dishes of food were not placed amongst 

 them, at a distance from each other. Their actions in fight- 

 ing are very similar to those 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, ac- 

 companied 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 



* Appointed in Oct. 1767. 



