68 A LONG DAY WITH THE BIRDS 
they are very wary) they get away very 
quickly. Their running habits are a great 
nuisance, as much time is wasted in putting 
the dogs on to find them. They will run long 
distances, especially in ditches on the sides 
of fields, if not too much wounded (one wing 
only broken, for instance), and thus often 
elude even the best of dogs, which sometimes 
have to be whistled back from the chase. 
Neither is their flesh so tender or so tooth- 
some as that of their English cousins. Then 
also the French species is aggressive and ousts 
the English, which is undesirable. It re- 
quires only a slight acquaintance with the 
birds to be able to distinguish them. The 
red legs and general red colour of the French 
bird are seen at once, and they are the 
larger and brighter-coloured birds. The 
shape is different. The call of the English 
partridge is said to imitate the word ‘coki- 
leek,’ but the ‘Frenchman’s’ as sportsmen 
call them, can be distinguished with practice. 
I have heard the sounds very closely imitated. 
Partridges are fond of open, cultivated 
