THE RUFF AND REEVE IN LINCOLNSHIRE. 209 



ever on the alert, on the slightest appearance of danger invariably 

 taking the initiative, stretching himself to his full extent, and is 

 then a conspicuous and beautiful object, looking nearly twice his 

 natural size. If the alarm is well grounded, he at once rises, 

 his Beeves rising at the same time, and they go off together at 

 a great pace, silently and in close order, skimming the ground, 

 and sometimes will shoot simultaneously upwards to a con- 

 siderable height, and as rapidly descend. This Ruff was a 

 dark-plumaged variety, showing a considerable amount of deep 

 chestnut and purple. [Zool. 1870, p. 2286.] I again saw a Ruff, 

 then in plain plumage, with seven Reeves, in this pasture on 

 August 29th of the same year. 



They seem at all times very silent birds, and I cannot recall 

 at any time, either in the spring or autumn, having heard any 

 resemblance to a cry or note. Mr. Howard Saunders (' Manual 

 of British Birds,' p. 586) describes the note as a low "kack, 

 kick, kack." With us they are far less frequently met with in 

 the spring than in the autumn, and the females appear con- 

 siderably to exceed the males in number. I have found the 

 stomachs crammed with the remains of small coleopterous 

 insects. On four occasions in recent years the Ruff has been 



obtained in this district in mid-winter — December and January 



and three were also taken in flight-nets on the coast, in October, 

 1889. I have, however, never seen an example of the Reeve 

 killed in the winter months. 



The occasional appearance of Ruffs and Reeves in the future 

 in our coast districts, during the periods of their double passage, 

 may reasonably be expected, but, unless England becomes dis- 

 peopled and uncultivated, nothing can ever bring back in 

 numbers or variety the wealth of the ancient avifauna. No Act 

 of Parliament, however stringently framed, would be sufficient 

 in itself to bring about the return and nesting of locally extinct 

 species in the dried-up marshes and fens. It seems, therefore, 

 all the more incumbent on us carefully to preserve each frag- 

 ment of tradition in connection with past days, not only for 

 our own benefit and instruction, but also for the sake of those 

 who come after us. 



ZOOLOGIST. — JUNE, 1890, 



