RUFF. 
345 
GRALLA TORES. 
SCO LOP A Cl DAE. 
RUFF, 
FEMALE REEVE. 
Machetes pugnax. 
PLATE XCV. 
The Ruff, which used to breed in some of the fenny 
districts of Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, seems to pre¬ 
fer those of the most swampy nature, and covered with 
coarse grass, sedge, or other plants, many of them breeding 
together in the same marsh where such favourable situa¬ 
tions occur, provided the cupidity of the fowlers, who 
snare them for the market, does not induce them to 
capture the females in the spring, and thus destroy their 
own future prospects of success. Montague says, how¬ 
ever, that “few Ruffs, comparatively speaking, are taken 
in the spring, as the old birds frequently pine, and will 
not readily fatten. The principal time is in September, 
when the young birds are on the wing; these are infi¬ 
nitely more delicate for the table, more readily submit 
to confinement, and are less inclined to fight. If this 
plan was generally enforced by the proprietors of fen- 
land, or made a bye-law amongst themselves, the breed 
would not be so reduced: but there are still fowlers who 
make two seasons; and, by catching the old birds in the 
spring, especially the females, verify the fable of the goose 
and the golden eggs." 
The nest of the Ruff, which is placed upon some hillock 
