130 THE BIRDS OF OXPOEDSHTEE. 



the time of Charles 11^ but they were supposed to have mostly 

 perished a few years afterwards. In 1770, however, it was 

 introduced in larger numbers into Suffolk^ whence, spreading* 

 sovith and west, it has come to Oxon by way of Buckingham- 

 shire. 



Its first appearance in this county seems to have been in 

 the Chiltern district, where, as stated by the Messrs. Matthews, 

 a pair were killed on the hills near Stokenchurch in 1 835, and 

 on the 21st September, 1848, a covey of six were found in 

 the same locality by Mr. Willoughby Beauchamp. {Zoologist, 

 p. 2598.) In this locality the Rev. B. D'O. Aplin found it 

 common in 1879, frequenting the rough ground at the top of 

 the hills, and being often found in the tall ling, from which 

 I flushed one in June, 1880, when investigating with him the 

 natural history of the district. About Thame, however, 

 it continued rare, or unknown, for many years subsequent to 

 1848. 



In the neighbourhood of Oxford no information as to the 

 date of its first appearance has been available, but at the 

 present day it is not imcommon, breeding, among other places, 

 at Nuneham and Porest Hill, some numbers being annually 

 brought into Oxford Market. 



Passing up the east side of the county, where it is now well 

 established, the Red-legged Partridge continued rare in the 

 northern*' division until comparatively recent years. My late 

 father, whose shooting days extended over a period of more 

 than forty years, from about 1836, and who during that time 

 shot in many parts of the north of the county, among other 

 places at Heythrop for ten or twelve years, only shot one of 

 these birds until the last year or two of his shooting. This 

 was at Heythrop prior to i860, and he always considered it 

 had been mischievously introduced (a supposition rendered 

 highly probable from the fact that these birds are hardly 

 established in that district even now), ' Frenchmen ' being held 

 in great disfavour in those days. At Arncot, near Bicester, 



