PECULIARITIES IN PAIRING. 101 



top of the head, and down the neck into the stuffing 

 or straw body, which at the same time is made 

 to fix the wings. Rough as this preparation is, and 

 as unlike a living- bird as skin and feathers can 

 be made, it is found to answer the purpose suffi- 

 ciently well. These stuffed skins are fastened down 

 to the ground by a string about two feet long tied 

 above the knee ; but sometimes a long string is so 

 managed as to make the decoy jerk upwards, to 

 represent the jumping movement common amongst 

 the ruffs, which, upon seeing a straggler fly past 

 them, will leap or flirt a yard from the ground, upon 

 which the flying bird alights for the sake of a skir- 

 mish. 



The ruffs thus caught are fattened for the table 

 with bread and milk, hempseed, and sometimes with 

 boiled wheat; but if expedition be required, sugar is 

 added, which will make them, in a fortnight's time, 

 a lump of fat. Mr. Towns, a rioted feeder, at 

 Spalding, told Colonel Montagu, that his family had 

 been a hundred years in the trade, and he never 

 knew the price to be under thirty shillings a dozen 

 when the birds were fit for the table, though they 

 are often much higher. Mr. Allan, of Grange, in- 

 formed Bewick, that in 1794 he dined at the George 

 Inn, York, where four ruffs made one of the dishes 

 at table, which, in the bill, were separately charged 

 sixteen shillings. 



The ruffs are so addicted to fighting, that the 

 feeders are obliged to shut them up in a dark room, 

 for they attack one another the moment the light is 

 admitted, and never desist till most of them are ex- 

 terminated. The success of Towns, therefore, in 

 carrying a great number to Ireland, becomes the 

 more extraordinary. At the request of the Marquis 

 of Townsend, at the time Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 

 land, he set off from Lincolnshire with twenty-seven 



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