304 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



CASE 64. 



THE PARTRIDGE. 

 Order, Gallincs. Family, Phasianidce, 



This is a very interesting and well-known species ; 

 one of our most favoured game-birds for the table, 

 and affording excellent sport in the field. When I 

 speak of it as an interesting bird, I refer more 

 particularly to its associations with the past. 



Times are changed from the days when our fore- 

 fathers used to tramp the turnips and stubbles in 

 their quaint Old English sporting dress, accompanied 

 by good old sporting dogs, and put in a good hard 

 day's work — days when driving and breech-loaders 

 were unknown. In the present day, where Partridges 

 predominate, as they do, I believe, in the eastern 

 counties, driving the birds over the heads of the 

 shooters is more often adopted than shooting them 

 over dogs. 



This species is widely distributed in the British 

 Islands, being much more plentiful in England and 

 Wales than in either Scotland or Ireland. I must 

 say that in the two last named countries I have hardly 

 met with Partridges at all ; probably this is due to 

 the fact of their being somewhat local in Scotland, 

 but in Ireland poaching is said to be the chief cause 

 of the lack of birds. Whenever I have happened to 

 come across them they seemed to me to be much 

 smaller than the ordinary English bird. 



