amongst these birds in aviaries their fights are never
very serious or long sustained, and appear to be set
going more for the sake of showing off to the Reeves
than with any intention of damage to each other; so
well known was this habit in Lincolnshire in former
days that I have been assured by a friend that his
mother, a native of that county, would often check the
squabbles of her young family by the words “ Come, you
children must not fight like Ruffs ! ” Large numbers
of these birds were formerly taken in nets in the fens of
our eastern counties in the spring and regularly fattened
for the table, always commanding a ready sale at a high
price; but this business has long ago been discontinued
for lack of birds, and the great majority of Ruffs and
Reeves that are now to be found in the English markets
are imported from the Netherlands. The natural food
of this species consists of insects, worms, and small
mollusks, but in captivity they take readily to a diet of
bread and milk, boiled wheat and rice, and chopped
liver, and on this regimen rapidly become fat; a Ruff
in good condition is a most excellent bird, far superior,
in my estimation, to a Woodcock at its best. My own
acquaintance with this species in a wild state is very
limited: the only remarkable point about it that I have
observed that I have not found recorded by other
writers, is the ease with which these birds are attracted
by any unusually bright-coloured object such as a red
or yellow flag or handkerchief fluttering in the breeze,
and I have seen some of them occasionally hover over a
dog; this habit is, of course, common amongst waders
when their nests are approached, but the instances in