birds that are used for the purpose of decoying the wild ones, 
the RufF-catcher employs the skins of the Reeve, or female, 
which are clumsily stuffed, for that purpose ; the nets vary 
much in size, from fourteen feet to ten or twelve yards in 
length, and are commonly used singly ; about an hour be- 
fore daj-break we set off, the net was placed on a piece 
of sloping marshy ground, where the birds had been noticed 
the previous day ; we then took our station behind a heap of 
brush-wood, at the distance of one hundred and fifty yards, 
and to prevent the birds discovering us by the scent, some 
lighted turf was constantly placed before us. As soon as 
the day began to break we heard the piping or whistling 
note of these birds, and very shortly afterwards some came 
within the compass of the net, which was immediately pulled, 
and the produce of the first fall of the net was thirteen 
males and four females, the latter were immediately libe- 
rated, but whether from having been before captured, they 
did not shew any considerable alarm, nor did they leave 
the place, so that the next time the net was drawn two 
of them were retaken ; by seven in the morning the birds 
that congregated were all captured, or had quitted the 
place, with the exception of the females, who frequent the 
same places, and throughout the whole day but nine Ryffs 
were taken singly, excepting those captured at our first set- 
ting out. " . 
Oil the prisoners being taken out of the baskets, they 
had several pans of bread and milk mixed with hemp-seed 
set before them, which they began to devour with as much 
avidity as if it had been their common food; during their 
feeding their quarrelsome disposition became evident, for if 
one intruded in the slightest degree upon the position taken 
up by its neighbour, a battle was the inevitable conse- 
quence, and all the vigilance shewn by the Game Cock was 
here displayed ; they seized one another by the ruff-feathers, 
and then leaping upwards, at each time tore out several 
feathers ; their heads were beiit down and they menaced one 
another exactly in the way of the fighting Cock; this dis- 
position to fight was evinced not during their meals only, but 
