THE CRANE KIND. 34-7 



them this superior warmth, I cannot tell; but 

 there is no doubt of their quick incubation. 



In their seasons of courtship they pair as other 

 birds, but not without violent contests between 

 the males for the choice of the female. The 

 lapwing and the plover are often seen to fight 

 among themselves ; but there is one little bird 

 of this tribe, called the Ruff, that has got the 

 epithet of the fighter, merely from its great per- 

 severance and animosity on these occasions. In 

 the beginning of spring, when these birds arrive 

 among our marshes, they are observed to engage 

 with desperate fury against each other : it is then 

 that the fowlers, seeing them intent on mutual 

 destruction, spread their nets over them, and 

 take them in great numbers. Yet even in cap- 

 tivity their animosity still continues : the people 

 that fat them up for sale are obliged to shut them 

 up in close dark rooms ; for if they let ever so 

 little light in among them, the turbulent prisoners 

 instantly fall to fighting 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 pair- 

 ed and begun to lay, their contentions are then 

 over. 



The place these birds chiefly chuse 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 



