BRITISH GAME-BIRDS. 201 



whilst a few sails dotted the water, made a very 

 agreeable picture. The partridges found something 

 there to please them certainly, for added to ants' 

 eggs, there were grasshoppers in thousands. As 

 you moved along you would be covered by these 

 nimble skipjacks. Good food and shelter, with 

 warmth, for at that time our marsh summers were 

 hot ones, made all the difference to the size and 

 plumage of the partridges which were found there 

 in such great abundance. One of my friends who 

 shot on his own marshes, with one of Manton's 

 doubles, using either a Spanish pointer or a curly- 

 coated setter only seen now in old sporting works 

 such as Daniels, and others of a like nature 

 used to leave a brace now and then when he 

 passed our house. It was proper partridge-shooting 

 then, not driving, and what was considered a fair 

 day's sport then would be laughed at now. But 

 the birds were cleanly killed by real sportsmen who 

 knew how to shoot. Some of our readers will 

 probably say mine are old-fashioned ideas. So 

 they may be, but I am not able to alter them. 

 When a brace was given to us in those days the 

 feathers had a bloom on them like that on a bunch 



