144 



British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs 



brown, of under parts dingy white; legs and feet yellow-brown. Length 12 inches, 

 closed wing 7 to yj. It is very difficult to find two males exactly alike, and this 

 nuptial dress is only worn in ]\Iay and June. 



Male in winter (Yorkshire coast, September and October) : head and neck 

 hair-brown, with black centres to the feathers of the crown, the erectile ear-tufts 

 and ruff entirely gone ; rest of upper parts nearly black (browner on the wings), 

 with buffj'-white margins mixed with rufous ; sides of face grey-brown, freckled 

 ^\ith red-brown; throat and chin nearly white, unspotted; breast grey, with a 

 rufous tinge, the rest of under parts dingy white. 



Young male in autumn (Northants, 22, 9, '90) differs from the above in being 

 much more rufous all over. 



Females (Reeves) resemble, according to age, the two last mentioned male 

 plumages ; but in mid- winter all trace's of white or buff margins to the feathers 

 of the upper parts are lost. Length g^ inches (young) to 10 ; closed wing 5^^ to 

 6. The Reeve never puts on a ruff in breeding dress as the Ruff does. 



Nestling (Denmark) : upper parts buff, ruddier on the crown and wings, 

 mottled with irregular blackish lines from head to tail ; under parts buffy-white. 



The nest is placed on the top of a rushy tussock, in a wet marsh, and is 

 tolerably well concealed. The eggs are four in number, sometimes three only, 

 pyriform, olive brown in colour, spotted and blotched with light neutral tint and 

 umber brown, chiefly at the larger end. There is reason to suppose that they are 

 made at times to do duty for the eggs of the Great Snipe, as has been mentioned 

 when treating of that bird. The Ruff is polygamous, as is — I believe — almost 

 always the case with those species in which the males are larger in size than the 

 females, e.g., the Pheasant, Black Cock, Capercaillie, Ostrich. 



It is at the commencement of the breeding season that the Ruffs earn their 

 martial title. They select at their breeding quarters certain neighbouring mounds 

 or hillocks, as the lists wherein to shew their mettle. On these, by trampling, 

 they clear a bare space, and at day-break " hill," or meet there, in mutual defiance 

 of all comers, as Black-cocks do. Finding an adversary, the pair erect their ruffs- 

 and ear tufts, lower their heads, and spar at one another like game-cocks, with an. 

 excessively warlike (or Hellenic) air, which, however, never seems to result in any 

 injury beyond the loss of a few feathers. It was by playing upon this combative 

 spirit that the ancient fowlers (who are as extinct now in Britain as their prey) 

 used to catch the Ruffs for the market with nets and stuffed decoy-birds. For a 

 fuller account the reader is referred to Montagu (" Orn. Diet." Ed. II, pp. 442-6). 

 It is safe to conjecture that the duties of incubation, and the care of the young 

 birds, fall to the Reeve. 



