RUFF. 697 



hill at the dawn of day, nearly all at the same time, and 

 the fowler makes his first pull according to circumstances, 

 takes out his birds, and prepares for the stragglers who 

 traverse the fens and have no adopted hill ; these are 

 caught singly, being enticed by the stuffed birds. These 

 stuffed skins are sometimes so managed as to be movable 

 by means of a long string, so that a jerk represents a jump, 

 a motion very common among Ruffs, who at the sight of a 

 wanderer flying by, will leap, or flit a yard off the ground, 

 by that means inducing those on wing to come and alight 

 by him. 



" When the Reeves begin to lay, both those and the 

 Ruffs are least shy, and so easily caught, that a fowler 

 assured us he could, with certainty, take every bird in the 

 fen in the season. The females continue this boldness, and 

 their temerity increases as they become broody ; on the 

 contrary, we found the males at that time could not be 

 approached within the distance of gun-shot. The females, 

 the Reeves, begin laying their eggs the first or second week 

 in May ; and we have found their nest with young as early 

 as the 3rd of June. By this time the males cease to go 

 to hill. The nest is usually formed upon a tump in the 

 moist swampy places, surrounded by coarse grass, of w r hich 

 it is also formed. The eggs are four in number, of an olive 

 colour, blotched and spotted with clove and liver brown : 

 one inch seven lines in length, by one inch one line and a 

 half in breadth. The young, while covered with down, are 

 prettily spotted, soon leave their nest, and are difficult to 

 find without a good dog." The autumnal catching is usually 

 about Michaelmas, at which time few old males are taken, 

 from which an opinion has been formed, that they migrate 

 before the females and young. It is, however, more pro- 

 bable that the few which are left after the spring fowling, 

 like other polygamous birds, keep in parties separate from 



