QUIET PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 



season (1902), in one day's shooting, no fewer than 612 

 brace were accounted for, and that in a year which was 

 universally reckoned a very poor one for partridges. 

 During the season of 1901-2 no less than 5,504 birds 

 were shot on these estates ; while for the previous 

 season, 1900-1, the total bag was 4,145 birds. Most 

 of these birds were, of course, obtained by driving. 

 Upon other estates the success of this introduction 

 of Hungarian birds has also been demonstrated. 



In Hungary partridge-driving has been carried to 

 an even higher stage of perfection — so far, that is, as 

 regards numbers shot in a given time — than in this 

 country. The late Baron Hirsch organised and success- 

 fully carried out enormous shoots, netting birds from 

 outlying estates and bringing them in to central beats. 

 By this means, which may be described as largely 

 artificial, and by the aid of a small army of between 

 200 and 300 drivers, he successfully presented to his 

 assembled guests some very remarkable shooting. In 

 the season of 1892, for example, on his St. Johann 

 estates there were slain no less than 17,048 partridges, 

 besides some thousands of hares, pheasants, and 

 "various." This kind of thing, however, while it 

 yields undoubtedly magnificent "gunning," can scarcely 

 be classed as sport proper. It lacks, in truth, all those 

 elements which contribute so much to the joys and 

 delights of quiet partridge-shooting. There seems to 

 me, somehow, a flavour of the showman's art in these 

 holocausts of game. 



The range of our British partridge {Perdix cinered) 

 is a very wide one, extending as it does from Scandi- 

 navia to Spain and southern Italy, while eastward the 

 bird is found through Asia Minor and Persia as far 

 even as the Altai Mountains of North-Central Asia. 



One is often asked the weight of the common part- 



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