354 THE BIRDS OF KENT 



a great trouble to all true sportsmen, and is inferior in 

 every respect, although a trifle heavier, than our own 

 Partridge. It is doubtful whether the numbers are 

 increased in Kent by others from the Continent, but 

 there is no reason why a bird of such powerful flight 

 should not do so, especially when we know that the 

 Quail comes. 



Mr. G. Dowker, in his Birds of East Kent, writes : " The 

 Red-legged Partridge has very much increased in East 

 Kent of late ; it is detested by the sportsman, as it keeps 

 running, seldom getting up within shot, spoiling the dogs' 

 and the sportsman's temper. I can remember the time 

 when it was never met with in this (Stourmouth) or the 

 adjoining parishes. It goes also by the name of the 

 French Partridge, and the notion that it occasionally 

 crosses over from France is strengthened from the 

 following circumstance. On November 13, 1884, Gisby 

 (an old boatman and sportsman of Eamsgate) informed 

 my friend, the late Mr. Hillier, that he (Gisby), while out 

 in his boat, saw twenty-two Partridges which flew so 

 near him that he could see they were red-legged, coming 

 over the water from the French coast, and seemed very 

 tired. I also remember meeting a number of these birds 

 about this neighbourhood, where they had not been 

 known or seen about earlier in the season, this being 

 in October, and they were so tired that they were easily 

 hunted down." 



In the Zoologist, 1873, Mr. James Murton states that 

 " On the 1st inst. (August), I was visiting at Smeeth, 

 near Ashford, and in the course of my walks my attention 

 was called to two Partridge nests, in which the young 

 had been hatched this year. I saw at once from the 

 egg-shells that both were the nests of the Red-legged 



