Ruffle is a moorhen that helped the rabbits of Watership Down trick Vervain into making everyone think he was insane in order to discredit his accusations against Campion. Pipkin tells her to sit on Slate’s back to make it appear as if she were swimming, as moorhens do not swim in the series. She is prominently featured in the episode “The Great Game,” and may have have also been in the episode “Home on the Down,” when the weasel scares off an identical moorhen.

She appears to be friends with Pipkin.

Trivia

• While in the TV series, moorhens are said not to be able to swim, in real life moorhens are water birds that spend most of their time swimming or wading.

Non-rabbit characters

Cross-media Badger • Bob (dog) • Cats • Crows • Dogs • Fox • Hawks • Hedgehogs • Kehaar (gull) • Owls • Tab (cat) • Stoat • Weasels Humans Lucy • Mr. Cane • Mrs. Cane • Schoolmaster Folklore Lord Frith • Prince Rainbow • Rowsby Woof (dog) Books/Graphic novel only Introduced in Watership Down Calico cat • Doctor Adams (human) • Hawock (pheasant) • King Darzin (beaver) • Unnamed Mouse Introduced in Tales from Watership Down Chief Rook (rook) • First Cow • Flairgold (glanbrin) • King of Tomorrow (deer) • King of Yesterday (bison) • Lekkri (gull) • Old Brock (badger) • Second Cow • Shindyke (glanbrin) • Third Cow • Unnamed Glanbrin • White Bull • Whitethorn (cow) • Zhuron (illip) Film only Cemetery Owl TV series only Bark (badger) • Calohki (puffin) • Darkling (bat) • Drumlin (mole) • Duster (dog) • Flitter (bat) • Frost (lamb) • Gluk (gull) • Hannah (mouse) • Hedge the Wizard (turtle) • Hyacinth (pig) • Kaka (gull) • Katerina (gull) • Parrots • Puffins • Ruffle (moorhen) • Skree (hawk) • Slate (turtle) • Tabitha (cat) • Tassel (squirrel) • Trill and Wobble (birds) • Weasel • Yona (hedgehog)