OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 207 



generally take place in the early morning. These combats are of 

 more or less frequent occurrence until the females begin to sit, a 

 period of nearly six weeks' incessant warfare, and which lasts until 

 the ruffs or collars (assumed about April) are either worn away or 

 begin to fall off. Each male pairs with several females, but takes 

 no share in the duties of incubation, or in bringing up the brood. 

 The breeding grounds are the swampy moors and fens covered with 

 long grass, either close to the sea or some distance inland. Here 

 the birds are by no means gregarious as soon as the " hilling " 

 season is over, although they are conspicuous enough in their gay, 

 varied plumage. The Reeve makes a slight nest on the ground 

 in the swamps, usually in the centre of a tuft of sedge or coarse 

 grass, where its discovery is very difficult. It is a slight affair, a 

 hollow lined with a few bits of dry withered herbage. The eggs 

 are four in number, greenish gray in ground colour, spotted and 

 blotched with reddish brown, and with underlying markings of 

 grayish brown. They measure on an average 1 7 inch in length 

 by I "2 inch in breadth. Only one brood is reared in the year. 

 Incubation, according to Tiedemann, lasts sixteen days. The 

 Reeve is a close sitter ; perhaps because she has no watchful 

 mate near by to warn her of coming danger. 



Diagnostic Characters. — Totanus, with the axillaries white, 

 but with no white on the quills or central upper tail coverts. 

 Adult males subject to considerable amount of variation, especially 

 in the colour of the ruff or collar. Length, 12 inches (male); 

 10 inches (female). 



