74 RUFF SANDPIPER. Class II. 



female lights, the ruffs immediately begin fight- 

 ing. I find a vulgar error, that ruffs must be fed 

 in the dark least they should destroy each other 

 by fighting on admission of light. The truth is, 

 every bird takes its stand in the room as it would 

 in the open fen. If another invades its circle, an 

 attack is made, and a battle ensues. They em- 

 j^ww ploy the same action in fighting as a cock, 

 place their bills to the ground and spread their 

 ruffs. I have set a whole room full in action 

 by making them move their stations ; and after 

 quitting the place, by peeping through a cre- 

 vice, have seen them resume their circles and 

 become pacific. 



When a fowler discovers one of these hills, 

 he places his net over night, which is of the 

 same kind as those that are called clap or day 

 72ets, only it is generally single, and is about 

 fourteen yards long and four broad. The 

 fowler resorts to his stand at day break, at 

 the distance of one, two, three, or four huni- 

 dred yards from the nets, according to the time 

 of the season ; for the later it is, the shyer the 

 birds grow. He then makes his first pull, tak- 

 ing those birds that he finds within reach ; after 

 that he places his stuft birds or stales to entice 

 those that are continually traversing the fen. 

 An old fowler told me, he once caught forty- 



