1 1 6 In Dutch Water Meadows. 



far as we could make out, actually striking it, as the 

 scarcely heavier Richardson's Skua would have done 

 if offended, but swerving sharply to the right or left 

 when within a foot or so of its enemy. 



Not far from the flowery slope on which, " at ease, 

 reclined in rustic state," we sat to lunch and meditate, 

 was a ditch rather wider than some one of the arteries 

 of the polder. The mud of successive cleanings had 

 been thrown out on the side nearest to us, and had 

 dried into a bank a little above the general level. It 

 was what in old days was known in the Fens and 

 Broads as a " hill " a gathering-place of Ruffs, birds 

 which once, like Avocets, were common in England, 

 and are now scarcely less rare. 



More than once we counted nineteen or twenty of 

 these curious birds together on the hill, and many 

 others constantly came and went. Much has been 

 written of the fights of Ruffs, which unlike most, if 

 not all, the rest of their class do not pair, but 

 are, like Pheasants and Barndoor Fowls, poly- 

 gamous. 



But, perhaps because questions of precedence had 

 already been settled, or perhaps because it was not 

 until towards the afternoon of a hot day that we 

 found them in any numbers, we saw nothing ourselves 

 to justify their distinctive epithet, " Pugnax." 



Every now and then one of the party rose, bowed, 

 and pointed his beak at a neighbour, who acknow- 

 ledged the compliment in the same manner. The 

 two, to borrow a phrase from Punch, " flashed their 

 linen," ruffling their frills to make them show to 

 the greatest advantage, bowed a second time, and 

 settled quietly down again. There was occasionally 

 a little momentary excitement, as another of the 

 privileged circle dropped in, looking as he flew 



