THE RUFF AND REEVE. 227 



white elegantly barred with black ; reddish brown intermixed 

 with black, or barred and spotted ; pure glossy black ; grey 

 and black, &c. It appears, moreover, that in no individual 

 are these colors the same for any two seasons. 



There are several points in which this singular species evi- 

 dences an analogy to the true gallinaceous groups of the 

 Rasorial order. Agreeing in food and general habits with the 

 tringae and snipes, it differs from them in being decidedly 

 polygamous, the females courting the society of the males, as 

 is the case with the wild turkey and some others of the order 

 rasores. The temporary plumes of the neck, resembling the 

 hackled feathers of the cock, the development of fleshy ex- 

 crescences about the face, the pugnacious habits, the jealousy 

 of encroachment upon a preoccupied territory, put us in mind 

 of the common fowl, and (with the exception of the hackles) 

 of the pheasant, capercailzie, and black grouse. 



The ruff is among the list of birds whose flesh is accounted 

 as a delicacy for the table ; indeed, it is held in high esteem, 

 and the birds, therefore, always fetch a good price in the 

 market. Considerable profit is made by various fowlers in 

 the, fens of Lincolnshire, who devote themselves at certain 

 seasons of the year to the business of catching them and feed- 

 ing them for sale. The means employed for taking them are 

 chiefly clapnets, into which they are lured by various devices, 

 one of which is a stuffed bird of their own species. The sea- 

 sons for taking them are, first, April and May, when the 

 males are hilling, and pugnacious in the extreme ; and se- 

 condly, September, after the young are fully fledged and ready 

 for the autumnal migration, when they with the old birds 

 pass to more southern latitudes. Few birds seem so indiffer- 

 ent and contented in captivity a circumstance fortunate for 

 the 'fowler, whose object is to fatten them for the market. 

 Their natural food consists of worms, small insects, &c., with 

 which the soft ooze or mud of the marsh abounds ; but they 

 are easily reconciled to a change of diet, and feed eagerly 

 upon bread and milk, boiled wheat, and other articles of a 

 farinaceous quality, upon which they thive and become plump. 



