BRITISH BIRDS. 89 



female, and waits in expectation of her taking a 

 joint possession, and becoming an inmate. As soon 

 as a single female arrives, and is heard or ob- 

 served by the males, her feeble cry seems as if 

 it roused them all to war, for they instantly begin 

 to tight, and their combats are described as being 

 both desperate and of long continuance : at the 

 end of the battle, she becomes the prize of the 

 victor.* It is at the time of these battles that 

 they are caught in the greatest numbers in the 

 nets of the fowlers, who watch for that opportunity: 

 they are also, at other times, caught by clap, or 

 day nets,r and are drawn together by means of 

 a stuffed Reeve, or what is called a stale bird, 

 which is placed in some suitable spot for that 

 purpose. % 



* Buffon says, "they not only contend with each other in single 

 rencounter, but they advance to combat in marshalled ranks." 



f These nets, which are about fourteen yards long, and four broad, 

 are fixed by the fowler over night : at day-break in the morning, he 

 resorts to his stand, at a few hundred yards distance from the place, 

 and at a fit opportunity pulls his cord, which causes his net to fall over 

 and secure the prize. Pennant says, an old fowler told him he once 

 caught forty-four birds at one haul, and, in all, six dozen that morn- 

 ing: he also adds, that a fowler will take forty or fifty dozen in a 

 season. The females are always set at liberty. 



i The Ruff is highly esteemed as a most delicious dish, and is 

 sought after with great eagerness by the fowlers, who live by catch- 

 ing them and other fen birds, for the markets of the metropolis, &c. 

 Before they are offered for sale, they are commonly put up to feed 

 for about a fortnight, and are during that time fed with boiled wheat, 

 and bread and milk mixed with hemp seed, to which sugar is some- 

 times added : by this mode of treatment they become very fat, and 

 are often sold as high as two shillings and sixpence each.* They are 

 cooked in the same manner as the Woodcock. 



* In a note communicated by the late Geo. Allan, Esq., of the 

 Grange, near Darlington, he says, " I dined at the George Inn, 



VOL. ii. M 



