166 THE RUFF AND REEVE 



THE RUFF AND REEVE 



MACHETES PUGNAX 



Male in spring — face covered with yellowish warty pimples ; back of the 

 head with a tuft of long feathers on each side ; throat furnished with a 

 ruff of prominent feathers ; general plumage mottled with ash, black, 

 brown, reddish white, and yellowish, but so variously, that scarcely 

 two specimens can be found alike ; bill yellowish orange. Male in winter 

 — face covered with feathers ; ruff absent ; under parts white ; breast 

 reddish, with brown spots ; upper plumage mottled with black, brown, 

 and red ; bill brownish. Length twelve and a half inches. Female, 

 ' The Reeve ' — long feathers of the head and ruff absent ; upper plumage 

 ash-brown, mottled with black and reddish brown ; under parts greyish 

 white ; feet yellowish brown. Length ten and a half inches. In both 

 sexes — tail rounded, the two middle feathers barred ; the three lateral 

 feathers uniform in colour. Eggs olive, blotched and spotted with 

 brown. 



Both the systematic names of this bird are descriptive of its quarrel- 

 some propensities : machetes is Greek for ' a warrior', pugnax 

 Latin for ' pugnacious'. Well is the title deserved ; for Ruffs do 

 not merely fight when they meet, but meet in order to fight. The 

 season for the indulgence of their warlike tastes is spring ; the scene, 

 a rising spot of ground contiguous to a marsh ; and here all the 

 male birds of the district assemble at dawn, for many days in suc- 

 cession, and do battle valiantly for the females, called Reeves, till 

 the weakest are vanquished and leave possession of the field to 

 their more powerful adversaries. The attitude during these con- 

 tests is nearly that of the domestic Cock — the head lowered, the 

 body horizontal, the collar bristling, and the beak extended. But 

 Ruffs will fight to the death on other occasions. A basket con- 

 taining two or three hundred Ruffs was once put on board a steamer 

 leaving Rotterdam for London. The incessant fighting of the 

 birds proved a grand source of attraction to the passengers during 

 the voyage ; and about half of them were slain before the vessel 

 reached London. Ruffs are gluttonously disposed too, and, if 

 captured by a fowler, will begin to eat the moment they are supplied 

 with food ; but, however voracious they may be, if a basin of bread 

 and milk or boiled wheat be placed before them, it is instantly 

 contended for ; and so pugnacious is their disposition, that even 

 when fellow-captives, they would starve in the midst of plenty if 

 several dishes of food were not placed amongst them at a distance 

 from each other. 



Many years have not passed since these birds paid annual visits 

 in large numbers to the fen-countries. They were, however, highly 

 prized as delicacies for the table, and their undeviating habit of 

 meeting to fight a pitched battle gave the fowler such an excellent 

 opportunity of capturing all the combatants in his nets, that they 

 have been gradually becoming more and more rare. The fowler, in 

 fact, has been so successful that he has destroyed his own trade. 



