THE CRANE KIND. 



As the young of this class are soon hatched, so, 

 when excluded, they quickly arrive at 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 poultry kind, that follow the mother, 

 indispensably 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 advantageous ; and it may 

 not be amiss to describe it. The Ruff, which is 

 the name of the male, the Reeve that of the fe- 

 male, is taken in nets 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 very shal- 

 low 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 j as are godwits, knots, and grey- 



