RUFF. 271 



by the fact that Mr. Lubbock once saw seventy or 

 eighty together in a marsh near Burgh Castle, at the 

 top of Breydon. These flocks, however, do not appear 

 to have frequented the ooze like the godwits and cur- 

 lews, but " the whole of their time was spent in the 

 marshes," where they preferred a "wet swampy part 

 of the fen," though in the breeding season they chose 

 the drier parts. 



Both Pennant and Montagu have described at some 

 length the method of fatting these birds for table, and 

 the prices given even in former days show the high ap- 

 preciation in which they were held as a delicacy ; it is 

 strange, however, that we find no mention of them 

 either in the Northumberland " Household Book" or 

 in the " Accounts " of the L'Estranges, of Hunstanton. 



In Pennant's time fat ruffs would sell for two 

 shillings or two shillings and sixpence a piece ; and 

 Montagu found that although a Lincolnshire fen-man 

 received only ten shillings a dozen, the "feeder" asked 

 as much as two guineas,* and never less than thirty 

 shillings. In Norfolk Mr. Lubbock gives the price of 

 freshly caught birds, at the time of his publication 

 (1845) as six shillings a couple, but says that twenty 

 years before they fetched only tenpence or a shilling a 

 piece. 



Several couples are not unfrequently to be seen in 

 the Norwich Market early in May, which have been sent 

 down from London for sale, but these, as far as I have 

 been able to ascertain, are all procured in Holland. 



* " At the present day," writes Folkard (1864) " the price paid 

 for fattened ruffs is often as much as four guineas per dozen," but 

 the system of feeding either ruffs or godwits for the London 

 market has almost, if not entirely ceased. In Leadenhall Market 

 black-tailed godwits may now be purchased at eighteen-pence 

 each and ruffs at a shilling, all imported from Holland. 



