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Ruff, Fattening of The

"The ruff is taken for the table in spring, but young birds taken in autumn are much to be preferred. They are often fattened after being taken, and are fed on bread and milk, with bruised hemp-seed. After being fattened they are sent to market. They feed readily when quite newly caught, and fight desperately for their food, unless supplied in separate dishes, which is therefore the regular practice of the feeders, who find it also advantageous to keep them in darkened apartments. The ruff is gradually becoming scarcer in England, owing to the destruction of its favourite haunts, the fens, by drainage."