V 



GROUSE AND PARTRIDGE 221 



immensely narrowed. And, on the first of 

 September, how many British harvests are still in 

 the future. One sometimes wonders how, in those 

 slow-going picturesque days of hand-shearing, the 

 sportsmen managed at all ; but, then, they were not 

 so greedy. 



Though the partridge season opens legally on 

 Monday of this year, 1895, still the weather has 

 been so unfavourable for ripening, and the crops 

 are still so backward, that there is little prospect of 

 shooting being general before the end of the month. 

 All that can be attempted is among the turnips, 

 always an unsatisfactory, and unremunerative 

 process, so long as there is standing grain to 

 conceal the birds. 



The partridge is the most familiar of our winged 

 game ; at least it is best known to the greatest 

 number. Who has not been startled by the cry of 

 the cock, and the sudden rise of the covey from the 

 lee side of the stone dyke, or the edge of the field 

 pathway ; and watched the heavy horizontal flight, 

 marked by periods of alternate beating and sailing. 

 It is associated in our minds with mornings which 

 have lost the enervating mildness of summer, and 

 have not yet taken on the chill of winter ; but are 

 delightfully crisp and invigorating; with scenes 



