190 RTJFF. 



price latterly was two guineas a dozen; and Bewick records 

 that in a bill brought in for a dinner at the George. Inn, 

 Coney Street, York, August 18th., 1794, where four Ruffs made 

 one of the dishes at the table, they were separately charged 

 sixteen shillings. I will take the opportunity of recommending 

 the house as a good old-fashioned comfortable inn, well con- 

 ducted by the landlord, Mr. Winn, in whose family, as he 

 happened to tell me yesterday, it has been for seventy years. 



The Ruff is very pugnacious in its habits, that is, the male, 

 in the breeding season ; the female being 'causa teterrima belli/ 

 so long since the times of Paris, of Priam, and of Troy, as 

 well as so .long before. In these challenges they mount on 

 some little knoll, which often becomes quite trodden down by 

 their feet a tilting ground for the display of 'Love and 

 Courage.' At other seasons of the year they live peaceably 

 together. Even in confinement however they exhibit a most 

 combative disposition, and when fed would starve if not 

 separately supplied with food, quarrelling over anything like 

 a common table: with other species, nevertheless, they seem 

 to keep up amicable relations in confinement. 



Selby says, that 'their actions in fighting are very similar 

 to those of a game cock; the head is lowered, and the beak 

 held in an horizontal direction, the ruff, and indeed every 

 feather more or less distended, the former sweeping the ground 

 as a shield, and the tail partly spread, upon the whole, assuming 

 a most ferocious aspect.' He adds, that in these attitudes, 

 the combatants stand opposed to each other, attempting to 

 lay hold with their bills, and if this is effected by a leap, the 

 wings are then brought into offensive action. As might; be 

 expected from the nature of the weapons, their contests are 

 not often attended by fatal consequences. This, however, does 

 sometimes occur, as Montagu mentions an instance in which 

 the bird died from an injury in the throat, got in one of its 

 feuds when in confinement. 



They are not particularly shy in their habits. Small flocks 

 of the young birds keep together in the autumn. 



Buffs are polygamous, and hence, as in other similar cases, 

 their quarrelsome habits. When the eggs are laid the hen 

 birds become very bold in their care, but the Ruffs continue 

 as shy as before. 



They feed on worms and aquatic insects. 



The Reeve begins to lay the first or second week in May, 

 and the young are hatched the beginning of June. The nest 



