814 



T R I N G A. 



THE KNOT ( T. canutits) is a larger bird than either 

 of the preceding species. It is ten inches long, and 

 more than a foot and a half in the expanse of the 

 wings. These birds are fond of soft and fenny shores, 

 and they are scattered over various parts of the coast, 

 both toward the north and the south, but they are 

 not abundant anywhere. They are birds of lonely 

 places, the dreary shores from which the tide retires 

 to a great distance, or the larger marshes near the 

 sea. The upper parts are black in summer, with 

 rust-coloured margins to the feathers ; the coverts 

 and quills dusky, the former tipt, and the latter mar- 

 gined, with white ; the upper tail-coverts barred with 

 white and dusky ; the tail-feathers blackish ash, with 

 very narrow margins of white. The under colours 

 are, rust-red on the breast, and white on the rest, 

 mottled with dusky. In winter, the upper plumage 

 fades to dusky ash, and the under to white, with 

 brown streaks on the sides and flanks. 



CURLEW TBINGA (7". subaguatica). Bill and tarsi 

 longer in proportion than in the other tringas, and 

 black ; the bill considerably arched ; the legs bare 

 for some distance above the tarsal joint. In summer 

 the head is dusky ash, the breast reddish brown, the 

 back deep black, with red margins to the feathers. 

 In winter, the forehead, and most of the under part, 

 white ; the breast cream colour, and the back dusky. 

 The size about the same as that of the purple tringa, 

 but the habits more aquatic. 



THE BUFF-BREASTED TRINGA is very rare as a 

 British bird, and its several changes of colour are not 

 known. It is about the same size as the last men- 

 tioned species. The Minute Tringa and Temminck's 

 Trijiga are small species, about six inches long, and 

 both of them are rare in Britain. 



There is one other bird, which was once associated 

 with the tringas, under the name of Tringa pugnax, 

 and which, though it has very properly been sepa- 

 rated from them, we shall notice in this place, as it 

 was omitted under its proper name. That bird is, 



THE RUFF (Machetes pugnax). Its haunts are 

 analogous to those of the different species of tringa, 

 but in some of its habits it resembles the gallinaceous 

 birds. In the pairing season the males fight desperate 

 battles of gallantry. They are considerably larger 

 than the females ; and in the breeding season they 

 have an accession of ornamental feather?, which, not- 

 withstanding their seasonal changes of plumage, is 

 not known among the tringas. This consists of a 

 ruff or mantle of long glossy feathers, which, growing 

 from the neck, fall down as far as the scapulars, some- 

 thing after the fashion of a Spanish mantle. At the 

 same time they acquire tufts of feathers on the ear- 

 coverts, and the face becomes covered with fleshy 

 tubercles of a yellowish red colour. Thus, though 

 the nuptial appendages are different in the details, 

 they display the same exuberance of energy which 

 the males of our common poultry display at the same 

 season. In the form of their bodies they have a con- 

 siderable resemblance to the tringas, but the bill and 

 the feet are different. The bill is partially flexible 

 only a little way at the base, and the terminal part of 

 it is very compact and hard ; the feet also are walk- 

 ing feet, without being particularly adapted to any 

 kind of surfaces ; the colours are very variable, not 

 only with the season, but in different individuals. 

 The male is nearly a foot in length, of which the bill 

 occupies one inch. The female is a third less. In 

 their_walk, especially the males, they have a sort of 



strut, and have the head and neck more elevated than 

 the other marsh birds. 



In former times they were very abundant in the 

 fen districts of England, and were among the birds 

 reckoned first-rate dainties for the table. They were 

 known by two names, "ruffs" and "reeves;" the 

 former meaning the male with the ruff of produced 

 feathers, and the latter either the female or the male 

 when the ruff disappears. In those times they were 

 captured in great numbers by the fowlers of the fen 

 countries, and fattened in confinement for the London 

 market, where they were in great demand by the 

 curious in gastronomy. At present the numbers, 

 as is the case with most of the fen birds, are greatly 

 reduced, though those that do come still keep up 

 " the customs of their ancestors." 



They are migrants, and make their appearance in 

 the spring, the males always before the females. At 

 this time they are on the best terms possible with 

 each other. They repose quietly in the herbage 

 during the day, and come out to feed during the 

 night, or rather early in the morning and late in the 

 evening. This is the time at which they used to 

 be taken by the fowlers ; for, though not in high 

 condition naturally, they feed readily. During this 

 quiet time the ruffs, ear-tufts, and other " signs of the 

 times," wax conspicuous apace, and soon after the 

 natural cause of their warfare comes in the shape of 

 the females. 



The moment that these make their appearance, the 

 doughty warriors prepare for deeds of bills not by 

 squabbling in a sort of private duello, where two hap- 

 pen to cross each other in their amorous courses, as 

 is the case with the "ruffs" of mankind, who, like 

 their kindred of the fens, have nothing to do or think 

 of but " sleeping o' days, feasting o' nights, and wooing 

 their dames." They carry on the war in a business- 

 like manner, not for territory, but for glory, as if they 

 were the people of some happy isle of the sea, proud 

 of being slain in any body's cause for any object, and 

 at their own cost and charge. They are even supe- 

 rior to those self-devoted victims of glory ; they fight 

 for what would make the blood of the Pol-CEconomi- 

 cus of "the University" curdle like cooling lead, and 

 turn the fervid Lady of anti-matrimonial notoriety into 

 an icicle, not to be thawed by the furnaces of seven 

 thousand lovers : they fight in order that each may 

 be the father of a family ! They do not come to 

 the scene of battle as mercenaries, or any way in the 

 train of a leader, as is the case in the j^w-gallant wars 

 of the human race ; each comes on, and for his own 

 proper interest, to win the surrounding patch of 

 marsh and the favourite, in like manner as barn-door 

 cocks wage fierce battle for the dunghill and the 

 dame. There is no herald to whet the stomachs of 

 the combatants, as there was when whilom the 

 bibliopoles of London are said to have contended at 

 the may-pole in the Strand for the honour of pol- 

 luting the public ear with the productions of Mrs. 

 Centlivre 



" His be yon Juno, of enormous size, 



With cow-like udders, and with ox-like eyes;" 



neither is any of the present file likely to receive 

 even the vasa preciosa for his private delectation 

 Eheu ! tempora mutantur, 



"No heavy lord now hangs at every wet." 



Still, the wars of the ruffs are faithful to the 

 observances of the olden time, and admit not of the 



