PUGXACIOUS HABITS. 233 



that is passed over, the birds are apt to fall away. The 

 method of killing them is by cutting off the head with 

 a pan- of scissors ; the quantity of blood that issues is 

 very great, considering the size of the bird. Like the 

 woodcock, they are dressed with their intestines, and 

 when killed at the critical time, epicures declare them 

 to be the most delicious of all morsels ; but I consider 

 the ortolan superior in taste to the ruff. It is a vulgar 

 error that ruffs must be fed in the dark lest the ad- 

 mission of light should set them fighting. The fact is, 

 every bird takes its stand in the room, as it would in 

 the open fen ; if another invades its circle, an attack is 

 made, a battle ensues, and a whole room may be set 

 into fierce contest by compelling them to move their 

 stations ; but after the place is quitted, they have 

 been seen to resume their circles and grow pacific. 

 The compiler kept many of the ruffs in mews, and the 

 only disposition they ever showed to be quarrelsome 

 was at the first, when the pan which contained their food 

 was not large enough to admit the whole party to feed 

 without being too close and touching each other. After 

 the food was divided into three pans it very rarely hap- 

 pened that the smallest animosity was seen, although 

 the birds were narrowly watched, in order to ascertain 

 the truth of a peculiarity ascribed to the ruflf, that a 

 general battle w^ould ensue if each bird had not its own 

 pan to feed out of. 



Eufifs and reeves are very frequently shot in the 

 fens. Old Merry, who has been before noticed, well 

 knew how to place those whom he conducted in fen 

 shooting near some spot to w^hich they resorted. The 

 birds flew backwards and forwards to this spot in small 

 parcels (termed by the fen men icings) of seldom more 



