160 SANDPIPER. 



not unlike the back ; the others plain brown : the legs in all 

 are dull yellow : claws black. 

 Female. The female, or Reeve, wants the ruff on the neck, and is lefs 



than the male. General colour brown : the middle of each fea- 

 ther dufky, in fome parts almoft black ■, the edges of the fea- 

 thers very pile : primaries dufky or black : fecondaries barred 

 rufous brown and black : belly, vent, and upper tail coverts, 

 white : tail dufky : legs as in the male. 



The male bird does not gain the ruff till the fecond feafon, 

 being till then like the female; as he alfo is from the end of 

 June till the feafon of love commences, when nature clothes him 

 with the ruff, and the red pimples break out on the face ; but after 

 the time of incubation the long feathers fall off, and the caruncles 

 fhrink in under the fkin, fo as not to be difcerned. 

 Place and Thefe birds inhabit the north of Europe in fummer, as far as 



Iceland, as well as the northern marfhes of Ruffia and Sibiria. 

 They arrive in England in the fpring, chiefly in Lincolnfhire *, the 

 ifle of Ely, and the Eaji Riding of Torkfloire. The males are in 

 much greater number than the females ; hence the continual 

 battles for the fake of pofleffion. The male chufes a ftand on fome 

 dry bank near a fplafh of water, running round a particular fpot 

 fo often as to make a bare circular path : the moment a female 

 appears, all the males within a given diftance begin fighting, at 

 which time the fowlers catch them, by means of nets, in great 

 numbers f. They are alfo caught by means of Stale Birds, but 



• Chiefly in the Weft Fen. Tour in Scoll. 



f By placing a clap-net, fourteen yards long and four broad, over night, forty- 

 four birds have been caught at one pull, the morning following ; and in all fix 

 dozen in the courfe of the morning. — A fowler has caught between forty and 

 fifty dozen in one feafon.— Br. Zoo/. 



in 



