EED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 131 



and near Tliame in the east of the county, he never met -^^th 

 it. It was about 1879 that the Red-legged Partridge was 

 first noticed as becoming common in North Oxon, since which 

 date they have increased rather rapidly, being now very gener- 

 ally met with during the season, and seen in steadily increasing 

 numbers hanging in the game-dealers^ shops in Banbury. 



Into the north-west of the county, about Chipping Norton, 

 it does not appear to have penetrated naturally. ]Mr, W. 

 Warde Fowler informed me in 1887, that Mr. E. D. Lockwood 

 had shot in the neighbourhood of Kingham on and off for 

 the last thirty years, he thought, without finding one, and 

 they were quite unknown to old keeper Cook. In t868, how- 

 ever, they were introduced by the Earl of Ducie at Sarsden, 

 where they seem to have thriven, as shown by the following 

 particulars kindly communicated to Mr. Fowler by Mr. W. C. 

 Carnegie, Lord Ducie's agent. From fifty eggs the keeper 

 reared thirty-eight birds, which were turned down, and, from 

 his game book, it appears that during sixteen years, 1871 to 

 1886 inclusive, sixty-eight birds were shot, giving an average 

 of four and a quarter birds per year ; none, however, were shot 

 in 1878, 1879, or 1883, while in 1885 nineteen were bagged. 

 From this it appears that they are now thoroughly established, 

 and a pair which Mr. Fowler and I saw in March, 1888, in a 

 rough grass-field at Idbury, were doubtless descendants of the 

 Sarsden birds. 



At Shipton-under-Wychwood, I heard in 1888 that they 

 were not uncommon. 



In the neighbourhood of Stonesfield, where the limestone 

 slabs known as Stonesfield slates have been quarried for ages, 

 the Red-legged Partridge finds a congenial home, and is met 

 with in some abundance, as shown by the following extract 

 from an interesting letter written, in March, 1888, by Mr, 

 John Worley to the Rev. J. W. B. Bell :—' They seem to 

 enjoy very uneven ground where there is a quantity of 

 stones, and a whole covey will often settle on a wall and run 



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