NATURE AND SPORT IN BRITAIN 



Nicholas Cox — and were usually trained to "set" or 

 lie flat on finding game. This habit is to be found still 

 persistent in old-fashioned breeds of setters. Having 

 found the covey, says Cox, ''draw forth your net and 

 prick one end to the ground, and spread your net all 

 open, and so cover as many of the partridges as you 

 can ; which done, make in with a noise and spring up 

 the partridges, which shall no sooner rise, but they 

 will be entangled in the net. And if you shall let go 

 the old cock and hen, it will not only be an act like 

 a gentleman, but a means to increase your pastime." 

 Our ancestors, although they possessed very poor and 

 primitive weapons in those days, were great at wood- 

 craft ; they had many curious devices for taking game, 

 and were, moreover, evidently first-rate breakers of 

 sporting dogs. 



The partridge is a singular combination of nervous- 

 ness and courage. Its natural fear of mankind and 

 its incessant dread of the assaults of such bloodthirsty 

 enemies as stoats, weasels, foxes, and hawks, are of 

 course well known, yet few creatures are more truly 

 courageous. During the pairing season the male 

 partridge is one of the most pugnacious and determined 

 of all birds, and the courage and devotion shown by 

 both the parents in defence of their young is, in its 

 way, almost unequalled. In the days when kites were 

 still plentiful in Britain, Markwick, a reliable observer, 

 has placed it upon record that he has seen the old birds 

 fly up at this most formidable bird of prey ''screaming 

 and fighting with all their might," in order to preserve 

 their brood from its assault. A hen partridge will 

 stand up boldly in defence of her nestling, even against 

 so blood-stained and terrifying a marauder as the 

 weasel or stoat. In passive defence of her young she 

 is equally brave, and will suffer herself to be carried 



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