THE PARTEIDGE. 77 



little or no discrimination or exercise of skill, in hunting up 

 the game, remind us very strongly of the battues in the over- 

 stocked manors of the Old World, or perhaps the tameness of 

 a Pigeon-shooting in our own country. 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BIRD. 



The American Partridge differs from the English variety in 

 several particulars, although it greatly resembles it in habits 

 and disposition. It is smaller by one-third than the English, 

 the plumage is somewhat different, and the call entirely dis- 

 similar ; its flesh is equally white and delicate with that of the 

 English Bird. 



We received a couple of brace of English Partidges, a few 

 days since, from a friend in England ; they arrived in good 

 condition, and we should think were remarkably fine speci- 

 mens, as they weighed 1 lb. 13 oz. each brace. The wings 

 struck us as being singularly small and short for the size of 

 the body. We invited some of our Sporting friends to be par- 

 ticipators in this rather novel and rare feast ; and we believe 

 that they were unanimous in pronouncing them not superior, 

 but rather inferior, to our native Bird in point of delicacy of 

 flavor ; and furthermore, we all came to the conclusion that we 

 could knoch them down, right and left, like smoke, if we were 

 once let loose in the overstocked preserves of "merry old 

 England." 



AMERICAN PARTRIDGE NOT A QUAIL. 



It has been stated that the American Partridge is more 

 closely allied to the European Quail than to the English Par- 

 tridge; but such is not the fact, as the Partridge of our country 

 resembles the Quail in no one particular save in the habit of 

 partial emigration that it exhibits every autumn at the running 

 season. The meat of the European Quail is dark, and often- 

 times loaded with fat, while that of the Partridge is tvhite, and 

 invariably lean. This alone is almost sufficient to establish the 

 difference between the two Birds. Another circumstance still 

 more striking in the habits of these two Birds, and better cal- 



