314 THE WILD-FOWLER. 



Fatting ruffs for the table was once a regular trade carried on in 

 the fens : the birds being taken alive, they were placed in aviaries 

 and fed with great care and attention, bringing considerable remu- 

 neration to the feeders. Montague states : " Mr. Towns, the noted 

 feeder at Spalding, assured us his family had been a hundred years in 

 the trade, and boasted that they had served George the Second and 

 many noble families in the kingdom." 



They are fattened for the table with bread-and-milk, hempseed, 

 and sometimes boiled wheat ; but if expedition is required, sugar is 

 added. This latter method of feeding makes them perfectly fat in a 

 fortnight. 



Their condition should be watched during the process of fatting, 

 and they must be killed at the juncture of extreme fatness, or they 

 soon fall away. 



When killed with good judgment at the critical time, and dressed 

 after the manner of a woodcock, they are considered by epicures as 

 extremely delicious.* 



Pennant speaks of forty-four birds having been taken by a fowler 

 at a single haul ; and that the same man took in all six dozen in one 

 morning ! At four guineas per dozen this would be a pretty prize 

 for a poor fowler. He also says, that a fowler is sometimes able to 

 take forty or fifty dozen in a season. 



* Pennant, 



