WOOD-COCK. 87 



colours, out are usually of a greenish olive-brown, marbled and 

 blotched with darker brown ; and, as usual in this class of birds, 

 are generally four in number. 



201. BAR-TAILED GODWIT (Limosa rufa). 

 Common Godwit, Grey Godwit, Red Godwit, Godwit Snipe, 

 Red-breasted Snipe. Of much the same habits as the last, only 

 not remaining in this country to breed, and consequently occur- 

 ring much more frequently in winter than in spring, and not at 

 all in summer. As not nesting with us, no space can be conceded 

 here for a notice of its eggs and nest. 



202. RUFF (Machetes pugnax). 



Female, Reeve. Time was, and not so very long ago either, 

 Then one fenman could take, six dozen of these bircls in a single 

 day. Now, I fear, he would scarcely get that number in an 

 entire season. The Ruff is, however, still known to breed 

 annually in some of the fens of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. 

 The variety of plumage, no less than the very remarkable ruff or 

 feathery appendage about the neck of the male in the breeding 

 season, is quite sufficient to make this a very conspicuous bird 

 among our truly native birds. Scarcely any two males in an 

 assemblage of some dozens can, in some cases, be picked out as 

 possessing exactly the same plumage. The breeding habits, or 

 some of them, observed in this bird are also very characteristic. 

 His Latin name, as given above, simply means "pugnacious 

 warrior," and verily he is as thorough a lover of battle as any 

 knight-errant of the middle ages, or fierce Northern sea-rover of 

 four or five centuries earlier. They do not pair, and therefore 

 fight for the possession of the females, and they have spots, 

 known to the fenmen by the name of Hills } which are as much 

 the scenes of universal challenge and battle as ever the stated 

 "lists" of the old days of tournament or playing at battle. 

 This habit of theirs facilitates the process of capture very 

 materially, and by means of a peculiar kind of net, duly arranged 

 before the day begins to dawn, the fowler is enabled to capture 

 all, or almost all, who have been attracted by their peculiar 

 instincts to the vicinity of any given hill. The Reeves lay each 

 her four eggs, which vary in colour from olive-green to a yellow- 

 ish stone colour, and are spotted and blotched with "liver 

 colour" and rich brown. 



203. WOOD-COCK (Seolopax rnsticola). 

 One of our most universally recognised "birds of passage," 

 coming to us sometimes in the autumn (always, at least, begin- 

 ning to arrive in October), and leaving us again in the spring ; 

 still no season passes, there is reason to believe, in which many 



