NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



nobleman was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, to take some 

 ruffs to that country, and actually set off with twenty- 

 seven dozen from Lincolnshire, left seven dozen at the 

 Duke of Devonshire's at Chatsworth, continued his 

 route across the kingdom to Holyhead, and delivered 

 seventeen dozen alive in Dublin, having lost only three 

 dozen in so long a journey, confined and greatly crowded 

 as they were in baskets, which were carried upon two 

 horses." Surely a notable feat this in the supply of 

 gastronomic rarities ! 



One never hears at the present day of a man who has 

 so much as tasted one of these delicious birds properly 

 fattened for the table. Probably the rude peasants of 

 northern Scandinavia, or Russia, Lapps, Finns, Samo- 

 yeds, and the denizens of the dreary tundras of Siberia, 

 are the only European or Asiatic people who now 

 taste these once highly prized birds. To such rude 

 palates, what a casting of pearls before swine ! A good 

 many gunners set eyes on ruffs and reeves in South 

 Africa. There, however, the males having lost their 

 remarkable breeding plumage, the ruffs as well as their 

 females pass almost unrecognised among redshanks, 

 greenshanks, and innumerable other wading birds, and 

 are neglected for wild duck, geese, widgeon, teal, and 

 other waterfowl. Ruffs were captured by the Lincoln- 

 shire fenmen in nets worked by long strings and 

 pulleys, with the aid of decoy birds, sometimes stuffed 

 specimens, but preferably living ruffs, fastened to the 

 ground with a string about two feet in length. 



Like most of the wading group, ruffs and reeves feed 

 upon insects, worms, small crustaceans, and molluscs, 

 in search of which they are to be seen eagerly delving 

 in moist places with ever-busy bills. Their flight re- 

 sembles the curlew sandpiper's more than that of any 

 other bird ; they are, however, somewhat larger than 



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