NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



Siberia, occasionally being found as far west as Iceland 

 and even North America. Towards autumn they fare 

 southward, visiting England and other parts of Europe; 

 thence, seeking warmer regions, they pass into Africa, 

 India, and even Japan. They migrate far south, and 

 are familiar birds in South Africa, being found in Cape 

 Colony as far south as the neighbourhood of Cape 

 Town, as well as in Natal and many other parts of the 

 country. Their appearance in South Africa usually 

 coincides with the approach of the rainy season. From 

 the nature of their food, which consists of insects, 

 worms, and so forth, and from the shape of their 

 longish bills, it is apparent that a moist soil and wet 

 marshy localities are essentials to their existence. Ruffs 

 and reeves are, whether in Europe or Africa, compara- 

 tively tame birds, and are usually to be seen in little 

 flights of from three to a dozen. It is somewhat remark- 

 able that the late C. J. Andersson, the well-known South 

 African naturalist and traveller, shot three reeves in 

 Damaraland (now part of German South- West Africa) 

 during the month of August, and that remains of the 

 somewhat brighter nuptial plumage were then visible. 

 It would seem probable that these birds had not passed 

 to Europe or Asia for the spring migration, but had re- 

 mained and bred in some part of Africa. Andersson 

 himself seems to have had the idea that some of them 

 remained during the breeding season in the neighbour- 

 hood of Lake Ngami. Amid the vast swamps and river 

 systems of that country there is certainly ample solitude 

 for nesting purposes. During the last century, when 

 ruffs and reeves were still comparatively plentiful in 

 England, their haunts seem to have been chiefly in the 

 fens of Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, the Isle of Ely, the 

 East Riding of Yorkshire, and the Somersetshire fens 

 near Bridgwater. Colonel Montagu, the well-known 



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