268 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



a very short period, when the ruffs, having broken up 

 their c hill,' disperse themselves about the marsh in 

 search of the reeves. At this time the distance is extra- 

 ordinary from which a ruff will come to a reeve whilst 

 flying- in circles round her nest. I have known a reeve 

 thus put in motion bring three or four ruffs from the 

 other side of Heigh am Sounds, a very large sheet of 

 water. This time of activity, however, is soon over; 

 the nuptial plumage then falls off; the bird gives up 

 the character of Lothario, and seems chiefly to study 

 how he may most conveniently get fat before his 

 autumnal migration. Indeed, the collar of long feathers 

 worn by the ruff in spring, though beautiful, appears 

 to cause the bird much inconvenience. The flight of a 

 ruff in full plumage is like that of the fresh-arrived and 

 tired woodcock, roused early in the morning after a 

 flight which completed his last stage from Scandinavia ; 

 it is laboured, slow, and straight. No sooner does the 

 bird get rid of these appendages than he dashes forward 

 with all the buoyancy and swiftness of the rest of the 

 genus. There cannot be a greater contrast than the 

 swift-glancing, powerful flight of the reeve, and the 

 laboured fettered motions of her partner during the 

 breeding season." Colonel Montagu was evidently 

 much struck with the power exhibited by practised 

 fowlers of distinguishing a ruff amongst the herbage 

 at an almost incredible distance, but on this point 

 Mr. Lubbock remarks, "even a novice is surprised at 

 the distance at which these birds, upright and motion- 

 less, are visible to the eye." 



The " hill" as it is termed is simply a raised situa- 

 tion (on the bank of a marsh dyke for instance) upon 



described in "The Experienced Fowler" (London, 1704, 18 mo., 

 p 18) : " You may shoot a lark or some other bird, take out the 

 entrails, stuff him with tow, and dry him in an oven, his wings set 

 in a flying posture ; and so you may be furnished at all times/* 



