$2 Sporting Notes in the Far East. 



is its quickness in getting under weigh, when once flushed ; as 

 their usual method of commencing flight, is to jump two or three 

 feet straight up in the air, and then dart straight off like swallows. 



On the main land they will mostly be found on the bare hill 

 sides, and are particularly fond of the hollows which are covered 

 with long dead grass. 



They are indeed hard to find, and will constantly evade a dog 



with the keenest of noses. 



i 



These birds have a most weird call ; and towards dusk on the 

 lone hillside, their distant greetings passing (I might almost say re- 

 echoing) from crag to crag, gives something not far removed from 

 an uncanny sensation, to the nerves of the solitary sportsman on 

 his homeward journey. 



In the Island of Hainan, where ground is more or less flat ; 

 although the partridges are also very partial to patches of long dead 

 grass, they will mostly frequent the bamboo hedges, and thick 

 cactus groves, which abound all over the low lying ground. They 

 are more easily found and put up in fine weather ; as on wet days, 

 Mr. Gentleman Partridge will stow himself away in a lump of 

 thick and impenetrable cactus, and no dog on earth will dislodge 

 him from his prickly " foul weather " house. 



The partridge of the East, is about the same size, but much 

 more leggy, and not nearly so plump, as his brown relation of the 

 British Isles ; their plumage is also much darker, the neck being 



