58 French Partridge 



other species. The ground is unsuitable for them, and you would 

 effect the clearance of the only Partridge that would flourish there, 

 not increase the number of Grey birds which would not. 



The late Mr. Seebohm, an admirable writer at most times, has 

 evidently acquired all his information of the bird at second hand. 

 He says,* in speaking of the Common Partridge : "In the Eastern 

 Counties of England, it has been partially exterminated by the Red- 

 legged Partridge, but still occurs locally in these counties." Just 

 consider the concluding line, " still occurs locally in these counties." 

 I imagine that the bags of the Common Partridge made in Norfolk, 

 Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, would more than equal the total number 

 killed in all the other counties of England put together. And yet, 

 these same counties are the stronghold of the French Partridge. 

 Could one ask for a better refutation of the crimes the French bird 

 is supposed to be guilty of. 



The weakest composition I ever read concerning the French 

 Partridge, was in a book entitled " Birds of our Rambles," by C. 

 Dixon, a very prolific writer on ornithology. In one and a half 

 pages of print in a small 8vo. volume, he made more mis-statements 

 than one could conceive the space at his disposal could possibly 

 allow. Amongst other things, he says : "I can name reliable 

 " witnesses of actual fights between the two birds "{C . rufa and P. 

 cinerea); "nay more, where it" (C. rufa) " has been actually watched 

 " killing an entire brood of English Partridges just as they got their 

 " first set of quills ! Comment is needless." I quite agree with 

 the concluding sentence : he does not say what the male and female 

 Grey-birds were doing during this holocaust, but, as I have 

 endeavoured to show, they are the most devoted parents, and it is 

 quite certain that they must both have perished before the offending 

 French bird could have seriously begun the massacre of the innocents. 

 The statement is, of course — reliable witnesses and all — nonsense 

 pure and simple. 



The call of the French Partridge is quite unmistakable, so is 

 that of the Grey bird, but they are very different. The Grey bird's 

 call is almost impossible to put into words that would convey any- 

 thing to those unfamiliar with the soimd. It is a kind of crake, 

 chis-ick, repeated over and over again, and if I had to* reproduce the 

 sound, I think I should borrow a door with rust\' hinges and work it 

 to and fro. 



A Frenchman, on the other hand, has a loud, combative call, 

 which savours a little of the farm-yard, and which may, I think, 

 be written chuck, chuck, chuck, chitck-aiL' ; one memberof the genusf 

 takes his familiar and scientific name from the sound. 



The French Partridge is a considerably larger and heavier bird 

 than the English, and the male is two or three ounces heavier than 

 the female. A good male Red-leg will weigli anything between 



*" British Birds," II., p. 452. 



f The Chukar Partridge (Car.cahis chukar, Grey). — Editor. 



