488 SANDPIPERS AND RELATED SPECIES 



in company. The usual note is short and sharp, and may be syllabled 

 as " wick, wick" or, as Professor Patten says, " swink, swink" not unlike 

 a subdued alarm-note of the chaffinch. 1 



THE RUFF 

 [F. C. R. JOURDAIN] 



There is little doubt that at one time the ruff was widely 

 distributed over the marshy districts of England. At the present 

 time, in spite of protection, it only maintains a very precarious foot- 

 hold as a summer resident in Norfolk : at Teesmouth it bred from 

 1901 to 1903, and possibly a pair or two may nest in Lancashire. 2 

 But in Montagu's days it still survived in the Lincolnshire fens, where 

 it was formerly plentiful : 3 in 1865 A. G. More quotes Tristram as 

 stating that it still bred in Northumberland, and in 1859 John 

 Hancock took a nest with eggs at Prestwick Car in that county, 

 while Mr Adainson once obtained a nest from the Solway district. 

 In Yorkshire it was formerly quite plentiful according to Mr. H. Reid 

 of Doncaster, though extinct in 1865 ; while the fens and marshes 

 of Cambridgeshire, Huntingdon, Northampton, and Suffolk were all 

 inhabited by numbers, and Montagu also tells us that it was at one 

 time not uncommon near Bridge water in Somerset. 



The steady diminution in its numbers in its last stronghold in 

 Norfolk is shown by Mr. J. H. Gurney's figures. In 1858 he estimated 

 that there were fourteen nests in the county ; by 1868 the number had 

 been reduced to five ; and in 1878 he knew of two only. A few, how- 

 ever, still return to their ancient haunts, which were however for a time 

 deserted, and several nests have been recorded within the last few 

 years, though it is to be feared that few have hatched off successfully. 



1 Aquatic Birds, p. 317. 



2 For notes on former breeding in Lancashire see Zoologist, 1884, p. 446. 



3 A nest with two eggs was taken, and the bird shot, in Lincolnshire as late as 1882, 

 according to Mr. J. Cordeaux. 



