110 WILD LII'H IN CHINA. 



off over the hedge with — one could ahnost swear to this — a 

 very merrj' twinkle in their eyes. 



As a boy, and somewhat given to trapping birds, I once 

 captured a partridge which had been foraging in my grand- 

 mother's garden. With a true-bred country bo3''s horror of 

 poaching — and this being only one step removed from it — all 

 kinds of penalties began to float through my mind. The fate 

 that had ov^ertaken certain sport-lov'ing villagers loomed large, 

 withavisitto the magistrates, seven miles off, and, who knows? 

 the county gaol afterwards perhaps. So the matter was confided, 

 with no little trepidation, to the granny. She promised to be as 

 secret as the grave, and a certain very nice roast that same day 

 removed all corporeal traces of the crime. People laugh at 

 or denounce game laws such as those of England, but they 

 have their good side. I have seen two or three times as 

 many game and other birds in 400 miles of English travel as 

 close watching showed in 4,000 miles in America. Possibly 

 the fact that the Transatlantic journeys were taken during 

 November and December may ha\e accounted for much of 

 the scarcity, the migrants having gone. But the fact remains 

 that, as compared with England, some parts at any rate of 

 the United Statesare almost birdless. I wastoldin Washington 

 that idle negroes were mainly to blame for it. Personally I 

 came to the conclusion that the law was more to blame 

 than the negroes. 



Before leaving the partridge altogether one would like 

 to have told of his wonderful charm as a pet. xMany have 

 been tamed, and their owners have been enthusiastic in their 

 praise. That, however, was not in China. 



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