SAND PARTRIDGE 101 



of the cultivation, but keep exclusively to the sand 

 (possibly in spring or summer they may approach 

 nearer to the haunts of man, but I have no 

 evidence), w^hich makes the fact of their being, 

 as it is alleged they are, exceedingly good eating, 

 very remarkable, for one would be disposed to 

 think they would be thin, tough, and tasteless. I 

 have it on good authority, that as a game-bird 

 for the table, they are far to be preferred to our 

 own Partridge, being, though small, very plump 

 and of a fine game flavour. All Partridges seem 

 peculiar in doing well on very little — at home 

 one often wonders during a hard winter at their 

 surviving at all — for they are never fed like the 

 pampered Pheasants, and not only do they survive, 

 but they seem to carry as much flesh when shot 

 in a hard winter as they do in September when 

 grain lies scattered in profusion on every stubble. 

 Although one has praised its seeming happy way 

 of living, no account of this bird would be complete 

 without some notice of its extraordinary pugnacity. 

 This is confined admittedly to the males, but 

 with them it is, as with all so-called game-birds, 

 a ruling passion, of which our game-cocks are 

 of course well-known examples; but it may not 

 be so generally known that in many countries — 



