RED-LEGGED PARTKIDGE. 415 



of the red-legged partridge there can be no doubt, but 

 whilst it is by no means easy to decide* from what 

 portion of the continent we might look for an influx 

 of this species and there is really no place abroad that 

 these birds could have come from to alight on the 

 Cromer beach, the above statements are by no means 

 incompatible with the idea that emigration and not 

 immigration is the true explanation of this somewhat 

 difficult subject. In this view, I know, Mr. Alfred 

 Newton, who has paid much attention to the habits of 

 these birds, entirely concurs with me, and the very 

 fact that the French partridge was unknown in this 

 county till artificially introduced is one of the strongest 

 arguments against its vernal immigration at the present 

 time. On the other hand, after the success which has 

 attended the importation of this species and its rapid 

 increase throughout the Eastern Counties, it is far from 

 improbable that a certain portion should annually seek 

 to extend their area, and finding themselves stopped 

 by the German Ocean attempt to cross it. These 

 birds, or a portion of them at least (some, probably, 

 falling short and being drowned at sea), misjudging the 

 distance and their own powers of flight, would return 

 again to our shores in an exhausted state, and when 

 picked up under such circumstances, would very 

 naturally be regarded as foreigners just arrived on the 

 coast. Both Mr. Longe's account of the large covey 

 which, when disturbed by him in the early morning on 

 the sands, flew straight out to sea until lost to sight, 

 as well as the statement of William Mayes, that he has 

 seen these birds when four or five miles from land, are 

 quite in accordance with this supposition; and though 

 it is by no means an unusual circumstance during the 

 shooting season for partridges, when shot at in the 

 vicinity of the coast, to continue their flight out to sea, 

 returning in an extremely fatigued condition to the 



