THE CRANE KIND. 



571 



with each other, and never cease till each 

 has killed its antagonist, especially, says 

 Willoughby, if any body stands by. A similar 

 animosity, though in a less degree, prompts 

 all this tribe ; but when they have paired, 

 and begun to lay, their contentions are then 

 over. 



The place these birds chiefly choose to 

 breed in, is in some island surrounded with 

 sedgy moors, where men seldom resort; and 

 in such situations I have often seen the ground 

 so strewed with eggs and nests, that one 

 could scarcely take a step, without treading 

 upon some of them. As soon as a stranger 

 intrudes upon these retreats, the whole colony 

 is up, and a hundred different screams are 

 heard from every quarter. The arts of the 

 lapwing, to allure men or dogs from her nest, 

 are perfectly amusing. When she perceives 

 the enemy approaching, she never waits till 

 they arrive at her nest, but boldly runs to 

 meet them : when she has come as near them 

 as she dares to venture, she then rises with a 

 loud screaming before them, seeming as if 

 she were just flushed from hatching; while 

 she is then probably a hundred yards from 

 the nest. Thus she flies, with great clamour 

 and anxiety, whining and screaming round 

 the invaders, striking at them with her wings, 

 and fluttering as if she were wounded. To 

 add to the deceit, she appears still more 

 clamorous, as more remote from the nest. If 

 she sees them very near, she then seems to 

 be quite unconcerned, and her cries cease, 

 while her terrors are really augmenting. If 

 there be dogs, she flies heavily at a little dis- 

 tance before them, as if maimed ; still voci- 

 ferous and still bold, but never offering to 

 move towards the quarter where her treasure 

 is deposited. The dog pursues, in hopes 

 every moment of seizing the parent, and by 

 this means actually loses the young; for the 

 cunning bird, when she has thus drawn him 

 off to a proper distance, then puts forth her 

 powers, and leaves her astonished pursuer to 

 gaze at the rapidity of her flight. The eggs 

 of all these birds are highly valued by the 

 luxurious; they are boiled hard, and thus 

 served up without any further preparation. 



As the young of this class are soon hatch- 

 ed, so, when excluded, they quickly arrive at 

 NO. 49 & 50. 



maturity. They run about after the mother 

 as soon as they leave the egg; and being 

 covered with a thick down, want very little 

 of that clutching which all birds of the poul- 

 try kind, that follow the mother, indispensa- 

 bly require. They come to their adult state 

 long before winter; and then flock together 

 till the breeding season returns, which for a 

 while dissolves their society. 



As the flesh of almost all these birds is in 

 high estimation, so many methods have been 

 contrived for taking them. That used in 

 taking the ruff, seems to be most advantage- 

 ous; and it may not be amiss to describe it. 

 The ruff, which is the name of the male, the 

 reeve that of the female, is taken in neta 

 about forty yards long, and seven or eight 

 feet high. These birds are chiefly found in 

 Lincolnshire and the Isle of Ely, where they 

 come about the latter end of April, and dis- 

 appear about Michaelmas. The male of this 

 bird, which is known from all others of the 

 kind by the great length of the feathers round 

 his neck, is yet so various in his plumage, 

 that it is said, no two ruffs were ever seen, 

 totally of the same colour. The nets in which 

 these are taken, are supported by sticks, at 

 an angle of near forty-five degrees, and placed 

 either on dry ground, or in a very shallow 

 water, not remote from reeds : among these 

 the fowler conceals himself, till the birds, 

 enticed by a stale or stuffed bird, come under 

 the nets; he then, by pulling a string, lets 

 them fall, and they are taken; as are godwits, 

 knots, and gray-plover also, in the same man- 

 ner. When these birds are brought from 

 under the net, they are not killed immediate- 

 ly, but fattened for the table with bread and 

 milk, hemp-seed, and sometimes boiled wheat; 

 but if expedition be wanted, sugar is added, 

 which will make them a lump of fat in a fort- 

 night's time. They are kept, as observed be- 

 fore, in a dark room; and judgment is re- 

 quired in taking the proper time for killing 

 them, when they are at the highest pitch of 

 fatness: for if that is neglected, the birds are 

 apt to fall away. They are reckoned a very 

 great delicacy; they sell for two shillings, or 

 half-a-crown, a piece; and are served up to 

 the table with the train, like woodcocks, 

 where we will leave them. 



4N 



