^2 With boa* and gun in the yAngtze valleV. 



character of all three. It is not a partridge for its flesh is white and not dark. It is found 

 in thick covers and not in the open, and it usually, but not invariably, roosts on trees. 



Mr. Harting, a great authority on all matters ornithological, quite recently described 

 this bird in the " Field " as a cross between a pheasant and a partridge. 



Very few sportsmen have been really successful in partridge shooting, or rather no 

 bags of moment are on record. This may be, perhaps, because the birds do not exist in any 

 great numbers in those special districts visited by the shooter; because of the difficulty 

 in flushing them, for it is quite possible to beat a cover through only to find that the birds 

 have doubled back, a fact that a second beat may reveal, and because they seldom off'er 

 an easy shot, but almost invariably a quick snapshot. The bird's home may be said to be 

 in Chekiang, where its best known habitats are the Ningpo neighbourhood, the copses 

 round Kazay, Kashing and Hai-E, the bases of the hills at Batching, Hukong, Bingjow and 

 Maychee, the covers on the banks of the Chientang river from Hangchow to Fuyang ; round 

 about E-Shing, and in the scrub on the low hills which border the Clear Water river in the 

 Wuhu country. 



The bird is ordinarily found in quite small coveys though as many as fifteen have been 

 counted in a single company. A covey will run unseen before the gun for an incredible 

 distance, but when pushed to an extreme will flush with a startling whirr and separate in 

 all directions much to the perplexity of the gun. Coverts require the most thorough beating 

 and the sharpest lookout must be kept as to where the birds pitch, for they have the wily art 

 of settling on the branches of any tree except, of course, the bamboo itself which does not 

 lend a safe foot hold, and crouch so closely as to evade all but the most expert eye. When 

 wounded the partridge utters the most piteous cry, one once heard never forgotten. 



Its food consists chiefly of grain, seeds, berries, smaller pulses and beans, and the 

 quantity they can stow away is incredible. The shooter need only open the crop with his 

 knife to satisfy himself on this point. 



The call note of the male in spring time is a loud piercing challenge of which the 

 natives take advantage. " A countryman once showed me how it was done," writes Mr. Styan 

 in the Ihis. " He had two birds in separate cages, one of which was hid under a pile of 

 brushwood. The other was released, and his challenge being answered by the hidden bird, 

 the latter was soon discovered, and a fight ensued through the bars of the cage." The 

 natives practise the call with success, and there seems reason to believe that as many birds 

 are captured by the fatal birdlime as fall to the native gingal. 



Nos. 8 and 9 shot are generally used, the shot sometimes being separated by thin 

 wads into three equal quantities to ensure, so it is held, a wide and early spread. 



WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 



The Common Woodcock (Scolopax rustkula.) 



The woodcock may be called a fitful visitant, for there is no certainty as to the date 

 of its arrival, nor of the numbers in which it may visit the Yangtze Valley. Some seasons 

 cock come earlier than others, though as a rule they arrive towards the end of October or 

 in the beginning of November, and may be found thinly scattered over the country 

 throughout the winter. If much rain have fallen cock may be looked for in October. 



