COMMON PARTRIDGE. 427 



•wires to fly against them in their head-long course. 

 At LarHng, where the International Telegraph crosses 

 an extensive heath, preserved for sporting purposes, I 

 have known as many as six or eight birds thus killed 

 in one day when driven forward by the beaters ;* and 

 Mr. Alfred Newton informs me that when shooting at 

 Elden, near Thetford, he has seen five birds killed out 

 of a covey in the same way. They are also occasionally 

 found dead under the wires on foggy mornings, but this 

 more particularly in places where the wires have but 

 recently been introduced. 



Having referred to the supposed migratory habits 

 of the French partridge I may here state that, in the 

 "Zoologist" for 1848 (p. 1965), Messrs. Gurney and 

 Fisher have noticed the occurrence, in two instances, 

 during the autumn of that year, of small coveys of 

 English birds amongst the boats on Yarmouth beach, 

 and even in the town ; from which they infer an occa- 

 sional migration of the grey-partridge as well, quoting 

 Yarrell's remarks in favour of this opinion to the effect 

 that ^' though stationary all the year in central Europe, 

 this bird is said to be migratory in the countries that 

 are at the limits of its geographical range, thus M. 

 Malherbe, in his Fauna of Sicily, says it visits that 

 island every spring and autumn, when on its passage 

 from North Africa to Italy and back," Whether or not 

 small flights of these birds ever reach our coast from 

 more northern localitiesf I have no present means 



* In the " Zoologist" for 1865 (p. 9467), a very curious instance 

 is recorded of a covey of six or seven partridges striking the roof 

 of a house when covered with snow, by which four were killed, and 

 the rest more or less injured. 



t The gi'ey-partridge, found only in the southern parts of 

 Norway until the last few years, and even in 1851 unknown 

 further north than the latitude of Christiania (" Zoologist," 1851, 

 p. 3044), is now, as Mr, Newton informs me, rapidly extending its 

 area under the influence of increased cultivation. 

 3i2 



