CHAPTER I 



THE PARTRIDGE AT HOME AND ABROAD 



OUR national traditions are so closely associated with 

 this favourite game-bird, that its presence could as ill 

 be spared from our midst in these breech-loading 

 days as when it afforded sport to our hawking 

 ancestors. Few will deny the pleasure that the 

 partridge has conferred upon their rambles amid 

 homely scenery, startling them with its abrupt de- 

 parture from some clover field, or breaking in upon 

 the stillness of a summer evening by the iteration of 

 its harsh, unmusical call-note. Whether we wander 

 over the downs of the south coast, climb the slopes 

 of northern oat-fields, or thread our way through the 

 rich pasture lands of the Thames valley, we cannot 

 easily forget the presence of this familiar bird or sever 

 the chain of memories which the whirr of its short 

 wings speedily awakens. This feeling has grown 

 upon most of us so strongly that our English meadows 

 would seem to be bereft of one of their most potent 



B 2 



