THE RUFF AND REEVE, 



247 



the mosses and salt marshes, as stragglers passing 

 onwards to the moors. On the Frith of Forth, on 

 the Northumberland coast, and on the shores of the 

 Solway, they are occasionally frequent. The vast 

 numbers that formerly thronged our own country are 

 no more to be seen. Population, and the necessity of 



THE UEEVK. 



drained civilised abodes, have compelled this singular 

 tribe to forsake their olden haunts ; and it is to be 

 feared the time will come when the ruff shall be but 

 a tradition of our sportsmen, and an adornment of 

 our museums. A writer of the last century thus 

 describes their amount in some islands surrounded 

 with sedgy moors, where men seldom resort : " I 

 have often seen the ground so strewed with eggs and 

 nests (ruffs and plovers) that one could scarce take a 

 step without treading upon one of them." The males 



