RUFF AND REEVE 307 



than the male, and in colour resembles the male in his winter 

 dress. 



If by chance the reader has seen in some museum or collection 

 a group of ruffs in full breeding-plumage, displaying their immense, 

 shield-like ruffs of many colours, their beauty, singularity, and 

 wonderful variety must have astonished him. The curious feather 

 ornament is similar in form in all the birds, but the colour varies 

 infinitely, and it is hard to find two birds exactly alike. In some 

 individuals it is entirely white, in others intense purple-black, and 

 between these two extremes numberless varieties are found buffs, 

 reds, chestnuts, browns of many shades, and mottled black or 

 brown and white, often beautifully streaked, or barred, or spotted, 

 or delicately vermiculated. But, alas ! these dead, stuffed 'birds, 

 standing immovable by means of wire frames a burlesque on the 

 wonderful living creatures are the only ruffs he is ever likely to 

 see, since this bird, as a breeding species, has now been extirpated 

 in England. On migration in autumn and spring it still visits 

 our coasts, but in small numbers, and probably not very regularly. 

 These visitors, or stragglers, are without the wonderful feather 

 ornaments, which are nuptial, and assumed about the middle of 

 May, to be worn only for about six weeks. 



The ruff is polygamous ; and in spring the birds have the habit 

 of meeting on some small dry spot, or hillock, in a marsh to show 

 off and fight for the possession of the females, or reeves. When 

 engaging in combat the birds stand face to face, like fighting-cocks, 

 their great feather shields erected, and thrust at each other with 

 their long beaks. These combats usually take place early in the 

 morning ; and formerly, when the birds were abundant, the marsh- 

 men made it their business to find the hillocks used by the birds, 

 and set horsehair nooses on them. The birds taken were fattened 

 for the market, and it was owing to this system of persecution 

 during the breeding season that the ruffs were reduced to a mere 

 remnant ; and the remnant has since been destroyed by collectors. 

 In Lincolnshire the ruffs and reeves finally ceased to breed in 

 1882 ; in Norfolk the last few pairs of the once numerous British 

 race lingered on until within the last three or four years. 



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