RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 243 



shot in both countries : I have myself remarked it with some in- 

 terest. The Irish covey generally springs without uttering a call, 

 but the Scotch covey shrieks with all its might when sprung. The 

 Scotch birds, too, even where very little molested, more knowingly 

 take care of themselves than the Irish; their watchfulness is extra- 

 ordinary. Their sense of hearing as well as of sight must be re- 

 markably acute. One day, in the month of October, an experienced 

 sportsman and myself sprang either twenty-four or twenty-six 

 coveys (nearly all double, or containing about two dozen birds) 

 in the neighbourhood of Ballantrae, Ayrshire, when they all not 

 only forbade a near approach, but, though we advanced as silently 

 as possible, never admitted us into the same field with them. A 

 sporting friend, who has had much experience in both countries, 

 remarks that he has more than once seen every bird of a moderate- 

 sized covey shot in Ireland, but never saw this done in Scotland. 

 He has bagged as many birds from a certain number of individuals 

 in the former island as he has from the same number of coveys in 

 Scotland." * As this quotation refers only to the partridges of the 

 north of Ireland, it is not certain that those of the south would 

 have stood fire so callously : the " coveys" of Cork might therefore 

 fail to substantiate the parallel. So far as the Scotcli birds are 

 concerned, it may safely be said that the national trait is not con- 

 fined to partridges. 



THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 

 PEED IX RUFA. 



MR W. C. Angus informs me that Mr James Mearns shot a speci- 

 men of this bird within two miles of Aberdeen, in the last week of 

 January, 1867. This specimen, which is in beautiful preservation, 

 was in a flock of common partridges, and unaccompanied by any 

 others of its own species. Messrs Baikie and Heddle mention that 

 the Red-Legged Partridge was introduced into Orkney at the same 

 time as the common bird, but were, at the time they wrote, unable 

 to say with what measure of success. It is not likely to have 

 maintained its ground there for twenty years. This Aberdeenshire 

 specimen, therefore, must have been a migratory visitor from the 

 south. 



* Nat. Hist, of Ireland Birds by Wm. Thompson, vol. ii., p. 65. 



