234 
SCOLOPAClDiE. 
a few birds which I saw feeding near the road were believed to be 
of this species. 
A relative has mentioned to me^ that when he was leaving Eotter- 
dam for London a few years ago^ in spring, a huge basket con- 
taining from two to three hundred ruffs was put on board the 
steamer. The incessant fighting of these birds proved the grand 
source of attraction to the passengers during the voyage. Their 
crib was one great battle-field, in which every individual seemed 
to be at the same moment engaged, and determined to keep up 
the warfare as long as life itself lasted. It was a continual 
battle and treading down of the wounded and dying. About 
one-half of them were slain before the vessel reached London. 
On inquiry of the person who had charge of them, Would it 
not have been better to place them in smaller baskets the reply 
was that it would have been quite the same as to the fighting and 
deaths produced. A number of whimbrels were caged with the 
ruffs, under the impression, as was said, that they might stay the 
feud, but, as we have seen, in vain. Several baskets of dead ruffs 
were also put on board at Eotterdam. Doubtless, many of the 
departed birds which are annually on sale in spring, at Hunger- 
ford market, have met with their deaths on the high seas in the 
manner related. 
The Brown or Grey Snipe. — Macroramphus griseus, Leach ; 
Scolopax grisea, Gmelin. — Has not been observed in Ireland, but, 
probably, will yet be so; — neither has it been in Scotland. Six 
individuals are recorded as obtained in England, from the first noticed 
in Montagu’s ‘Ornithological Dictionary,’ in 1802, until 1845, when 
the second edition of Yarrell’s ‘ British Birds ’ appeared. Nilsson 
states that it has been procured in Sweden. Stragglers only, however, 
have visited Europe. This bird is common on the shores of the 
United States, &c., of North America. 
