In Dutch Water Meadows. 1 1 7 



with ruff closed like a little pouter pigeon, but 

 nothing like quarreling. Everything was done 

 with quiet decorum, and the general effect was 

 more that of a select club window in St. James's 

 Street on a June afternoon than of a duelling 

 ground. 



No European bird, probably, varies in colour to 

 anything like the same extent as the Ruff. Of the 

 many we saw no two were nearly alike in plumage. 

 One that we watched from close by with a glass was 

 noted as having a chestnut ruff with a black face. 

 Another had an almost pure white ruff and chestnut 

 back. A third had a white ruff, broadly tipped with 

 black, and a back of the sandy dun of a little ringed 

 plover. A fourth had a ruff of black and white in 

 diamonds, like a shepherd's plaid. Two were, or 

 appeared to us to be, ruffs and all, whole coloured, 

 the one a neat uniform slate grey, the other 

 cinnamon. Another, a great beauty, had a ruff of 

 the darkest glittering purple shot with blue. The 

 eggs of the Reeve are smaller and more highly 

 polished than those of the Redshank, which they 

 generally resemble, and are commonly more richly 

 and uniformly spotted. The age at which the Ruff 

 in a wild state justifies his name and dons his 

 Elizabethan collar, is a little doubtful ; but there is 

 not much doubt that it is not until he is at least two 

 years old. 



Our attention had been so much occupied with the 

 larger and more obtrusive birds, that we had not 

 much time left for the little birds. But among many 

 which elsewhere would have been remarkable were a 

 pair of Blue-headed Wagtails, with breasts of vivid 

 yellow, and a third Wagtail almost pure white. The 

 last was in company with a female of the ordinary 



