A DAY WITH THE BARBARY PARTRIDGES. 177 



exciting sport, and the fleet Ostrich will try his skill. 

 Without, however, going so far into the Dark Continent, 

 we can find many a good day's sport amongst the scrub, 

 and the cedar and evergreen oak forests on the slopes 

 of the Aures Mountains. Here the principal winged 

 game is., the Barbary Partridge, a bird closely allied to 

 the Red-legged Partridge which has been introduced 

 into Norfolk, Sussex, and other counties, only with too 

 much success. 



Starting with my solitary Arab companion Achmed, 

 armed with our guns and game-bag he with the usual 

 long-barrelled gun of native manufacture, I with a 

 double hammerless breechloader embodying "all nine- 

 teenth century improvements," we left the precincts of 

 the village as the sun was rising over the eastern hills, 

 bent on devoting a day to the Barbary Partridges that 

 frequent the country here in abundance. The scenery 

 as you ascend the hills beyond Lambessa, a small 

 place about seven miles S.E. of the military town of 

 Batna, improves at each step, and you are soon in the 

 midst of scrub and evergreen oak woods studded with 

 patches of greenest turf. Higher up the hills juniper 

 trees abound and the vegetation becomes less luxuriant. 

 Here and there amongst the scrub are patches of 

 barley, the Arab cornfields, amongst which we hear the 

 well known caw-ee caw-ee of the Barbarys ; but they 

 are too quick for us, and the contents of my two barrels 



N 



