CHAPTER IX 



STUBBLE AND ROOT FIELD 



(The Partridge) 



NO bird has so many human friends as the partridge 

 — no bird so many human foes. There is some- 

 thing in the character of the partridge, and indeed 

 of the grouse, which specially endears these two birds to 

 the hearts of sportsmen, and we need not search very 

 far for the reason. It is, I suppose, because in the home 

 lives of both of them there is much that appeals to the 

 human interest, and one cannot study their ways without 

 acquiring a sense of kindred sympathy for them. 



Both the partridge and the grouse are strictly mono- 

 gamous ; this also applies to the ptarmigan, whose ways 

 are less familiar to the sportsman. The pheasant, black- 

 game, and the capercaillies, on the other hand, are 

 flagrantly polygamous. There is nothing in their 

 characters or in their mode of living which specially 

 appeals to the human sympathies, and consequently we 

 find less interest in the study of their life habits. 



But, over and above all this, the partridge is essentially 

 a bird of our homesteads, and it is distinct among our 

 game birds in that the advance of agriculture and the 

 redeeming of wild waste lands are in its favour. As an 

 example, there was at one time far more land under the 

 plough in the glens and corries of the Highlands than 

 there is to-day, but the exodus of our young men to the 

 Colonies and the cities led to a general shrinkage in the 

 extent of cultivation outside the wide valleys. Conse- 



153 



