AND NEIGRBOURHOOB. 79 



visited by great numbers of Waders of various species 

 not usually to be met with in the district, amongst 

 which I identified a small number of Ruffs, generally 

 in company with an immense flock of Peewits ; from 

 the fact of this association I was unable to get a shot, 

 but there was no difficulty in identification of the 

 present species from their companions, not only by 

 the obvious diff"erences in size and manner of flight, 

 but also by the peculiar double note in which the 

 second syllable is sharply accented ; this cry may be 

 represented as tu iv/iU, tu whit, repeated quickly 

 three or four times in succession. I found and shot 

 a young male of this species on August 21, 1872, 

 in a swampy meadow at a short distance below 

 Thrapston, and another of the same sex was killed 

 almost on the same spot by one of our gamekeepers 

 on November 2, 1881 ; this latter specimen is 

 now in my Northamptonshire collection at Lilford. 

 Mr. William Tomalin, in a letter recently received, 

 informs me that he killed two " Reeves," i. e. females 

 of this species, at one shot out of a flock of eight in 

 a meadow near Ringstead in August 1877, after a 

 high flood, and that these birds sent up by him to 

 London for preservation, were unfortunately cooked 

 and eaten. The above mentioned are the only 

 Northamptonshire occurrences of this bird that I find 

 recorded in my note-books with specific details of 

 date and locality, but I have heard many more or 

 less vague rumours of Ruff's and Reeves from various 

 parts of the county, in one case the so-called Ruff 

 turning out to be a Bittern. As I have never had 

 the good fortune to be in the haunts of these birds 

 during the breeding-season, I must refer my readers 

 to the full and most interesting details of their habits, 



