154 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Birds of passage Easily taken. 



white. The tail is tolerably long, having the 

 four middle feathers barred with black ; trie 

 others are pale brown. The legs are of a dull 

 yellow, and the claws black. The female, which 

 is called the reeve, is smaller than the male, of a 

 brown colour, and destitute of the ruff on the 

 neck* 



The male bird does not acquire his ruff till the 

 second season, being till that time in this respect 

 like the female : as he is also from the end of 

 June till the. pairing season, when nature clothes 

 him with the ruff, and the red pimples break out 

 on his face ; but after the time of incubation the 

 long feathers fall off, and the caruncles shrink in 

 under the skin so as not to be discerned. 



These are birds of passage ; and arrive in the 

 fens of Lincolnshire, the Isle of Ely, and the East 

 Hiding of Yorkshire, in the spring, in great num- 

 bers. It is not known with certainty in what 

 countries they pass their winter. Mr. Pennant 

 tells us, that in the course of a single morning 

 there have been above six dozen caught in one 

 net : and that a fowler has been known to catch 

 between forty and jifty dozen in a season. 



The ruffs are much more numerous than the 

 reeves, and they have many severe contentions for 

 their mates. The male chuses a stand on some 

 dry bank, near a splash of water, round which he 

 runs so often as to make a bare circular path t 

 the moment a female comes in sight, all the 



