Among snipe-eaters there is a bird that differs from its relatives. It stands out as a form and color of plumage, behavior, and even the way of life. It is a ruffian – a kulik, which looks like an ornamental bird, despite the fact that it belongs to the swamp game.
Turukhtans have always been popular among hunters and were considered a favorite gourmet delicacy. Because of this, they were extracted in large quantities, which led to a significant reduction in the species. Today, thanks to timely measures taken, the population of this bird managed to be restored. Its extraction is carried out in accordance with the law on hunting.
Turukhtan is a fairly large, slender, long-legged goose. In the usual winter plumage it is not difficult to confuse it with a sandpiper. Males are much larger than females. In spring, a scarf of long feathers grows on the neck of the dominant male, and something similar to the ears on the head. The coloring of these ornaments can be very diverse with different colors and shades. In the spring it is impossible to meet two males with the same color of plumage. On the face of the male, at this time, feathering is absent. The skin in this place is covered with a lot of small yellow warts.
The female ruff is colored more modestly. On her dark rusty back, black spots are randomly scattered. Only the whitish belly stands out. The same after molting, the male becomes a man, who by that time has no ears and scarf.
Turukhtans refer to migratory birds. They mostly inhabit northern Europe. They hibernate in the countries of southern Asia, Africa, etc. These heat-loving birds fly to us at the end of April. They settle on wet meadows, marshes, in river floodplains and along the banks of other reservoirs. After the flight, the males gather for a current, where a kind of ritual begins. Like home pitham males dissolve feathers and begin brief fights, for the right to mate with the female. These birds have a strict hierarchy. From time to time the place of current is visited by females that fly away after mating.
Female Ruffians arrange a simple nest in the bush, where 4 eggs are sometimes put off 3 times. The male does not participate in the incubation. After about 20 days young people appear, who leave the nest on the first day, but still stay close to their mother for a long time. Turukhtanka is a very good mother. She constantly cares for chicks and, in case of danger, is often ready to sacrifice her life for the sake of saving children. At the age of one month the chicks become independent. Together with the mother and the males that had perenilivshim by the time go to the grain fields. Often they can be found on the fields where millet grows, because of what they are called “proschaynikami.”
Spring hunt for rougthans is prohibited. Therefore, to get them start at the beginning of the opening season on the duck. True, by that time most of these heat-loving waders have managed to leave our lands. Fans of hunting for swamp game shoot ruffians on the way of their flights to the grain fields. Successful hunting is an overtravel, in which several hunters should take part. Some inveterate amateurs of wader hunting conceal ruffians or shoot at birds from the shelter. In any case, it will be successful to hunt with a well-trained policeman. Fraction in such a hunt should be used no more than the sixth number, but the gun must have a sharp and heapy battle.
In the Stavropol Territory, many adherents of various types of hunting: a raid – on wolves, with hounds – on wild boars and foxes, with cops – on feathered game, hunting for waterfowl. And quite a few lovers wander around for small waders – waders. This is a very large group of birds, including (within Russia) about seventy species.
Hunting for waders has long been considered a lordly and opened on Petrov day, that is, on July 12. Now the hunting period will be shifted to the end of September. And if it is quite understandable with regard to those waders that stay in the Stavropol Region until late autumn, it is completely unjustified for the extraction of the ruffians. This heat-loving bird already by the middle of September leaves the borders of our region, going on wintering further to the south. The same rouhtans are emerging in the tundra zone, and already in the beginning of July their numerous flocks fill the shallows of Podmankov and Manych.
These are fairly large waders: males weigh about 230 grams, females – twice as small. They feed on the harvested fields of wheat, millet, and why they received a local name – “beggars”. Birds very quickly gain weight, and by August their carcasses form a solid lump of fat. Many years ago, hunting for waterfowl and wading birds opened in August, which allowed the successful extraction of ruffians. And now in some regions of Russia with the opening of the autumn-summer season, birds are allowed to fly on these birds.
It would seem that logic is simple: the bird has ripened, the case is for harvesters. But the hunters are guided by some other criteria: they are allowed to extract this bird only when the season for waterfowl opens. And the cake was already gone by that time. So it turns out that they raised a bird, fattened it and let it go to the “overseas uncle”.
Hunting for rouhtanov has long been considered lordly. In pre-revolutionary Russia hunters could be counted on the fingers. And a kind of code of honor, a man with a gun performed rigorously: he could never have come in the head instead of a kulik to shoot a duck brood, or another bird, which, as the author writes, was not “ripe”.
Now times have changed: only in the Stavropol region hunting organizations number more than forty thousand people. In such a large family, as they say, not without a freak: there are fans to shoot at everything that stirs. And let us decide today the prey of the ruffian with the beginning of the hunt for the quail and the pigeon, the two-legged predators under this brand will start to get both the goose and the village
