170 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



were as wild as pheasants. They were all shot 

 over pointers by the huntsman, with the excep- 

 tion of two or three killed on the trees. It is to 

 be supposed, however, that wild chicken shoot- 

 ing would prove no better sport than knocking 

 over pinnated grouse on the prairies, which, 

 according to report, is but tame work, and 

 although the complete domestication of the par- 

 tridge would be a feather in the cap of the 

 naturalist, yet upon due consideration, the 

 sportsman will do well to leave the barn-fowl 

 in quiet possession of roost and dunghill. 



Besides the shooter who annually goes out 

 to brace mind and body in this exciting sport, 

 the little partridge has many orthodox enemies, 

 so to speak. Piratical hawks are constantly 

 cruising the air round its haunts ; the fox, the 

 raccoon and the snake, each has its snatch at 

 the broods ; while the farmer's boy, with his 

 Birmingham barrel and cock-tailed cur, or his 

 deadly figure-four, betraying whole coveys, at a 

 fall, to his remorseless clutch, makes war upon 

 them early and late. Even grimalkin, when 

 tired of mousing in the barn or dining off of 

 scraps, will slyly creep away to the field or 

 thicket, to set up her failing appetite on poached 

 game. For everv arrow head on its dotted 



