BUFF. 267 



being purchased not merely by the naturalist, but 

 by any one" desiring "a pretty object in a glass 

 case." Of the 'assumption of its peculiar dress by the 

 male he says, " The whole of this extra plumage is 

 put forth in about five weeks. A ruff shot in the 

 beginning of April, the period of their arrival, if the 

 spring is fine, has a few caruncles about the base of 

 the bill, and the feathers of the neck appear in a ragged 

 and unsettled state; here and there a longer one, half 

 perfected, protruding. In a month this bird's ' show ' 

 would be complete.* The young ruffs of one year do 

 not produce so perfect a * show ' as older birds." 



When in perfect plumage "the colours of the ruffs 

 are so various that it is hard to say which is most 

 common; perhaps the most general livery is reddish 

 chesnut, or black and white bars; the rarest tint is 

 certainly pure white. A hill of ruffs looked at from a 

 distance on a sunny day, with the light glancing on 

 their party-coloured plumage, was a very pleasing 

 spectacle, though now of rare occurrence in Norfolk. 

 To view them thus, it was necessary to be paddled by 

 a skilful hand in a small punt up some main dyke in 

 the fen, so as to approach completely screened from 

 view by the high banks ; for no bird is more vigilant, 

 or more impatient of near approach, than this. It is 

 therefore very difficult to shoot, although it may some- 

 times be allured within fair reach of the gun by means 

 of a stalef or stuffed reeve. This, however, is only for 



* The feathers which form the ruff, according to Montagu, 

 " are scarcely completed in the month of May, and begin to fall 

 the latter end of June;" and the fowlers believe that the males 

 " are not more than one season in arriving at maturity." 



f This word, known to every Shakespearian reader, seems in 



process of time to have become corrupted as to its meaning. It 



appears to have originally signified a dead bird, set up so as to 



look like a living one. The method of making a " stale" is thus 



2x2 



