THE COMMON PAKTRIDGE. 



189 



colour on its breast was killed by that nobleman in the fol- 

 lowing December. 



The subject of our notice is held in high estimation as 

 a dish for the table, as the following couplet testifies : 



If the Partridge had the Woodcock's thigh, 

 It would be the best bird that ever did fly. 



It appears to have been considered a great delicacy by the 

 monks of old, for in The Freirs of Berwick we find from 

 Freyr Eobert's account of the interview between Dame 

 Lauder and Freyr Johne, when the latter had " knokit at 

 the yet," that 



He thankit hir : and said, " My awin luif deir, 

 Thair is ane pair of bossis, glide and fyne, 

 Thay hald ane galloun-full of Gaskon wyne, 

 And als ane payr of pertrikis new slane ; 

 And als ane creill full of breid of mane." 1 



Mr. Hardy mentions " The Paitrick on the Pear Tree " as a 

 rhyme which children in Berwickshire are sometimes heard 

 repeating. 



1 The Freirs of Berwick, a Tale, thought to have been written by Dunbar before 

 1539. Sibbald, Chronicle of Scottish Poetry, vol. ii. p. 377. 



