Sporting Notes in the Far East. 53 



clothed with almost black feathers picked out in curious little 

 white specks ; the legs are of a bright orange. In their characters 

 they very much resemble the " Red-leg's " quarrelsome habits. 



The " Bamboo " partridge of northern China, is of quite a 

 different species to the common bird I have just described ; they 

 being mostly to be found in the thick flag reeds and briars, situated 

 on the banks of the numerous creeks. When put up they fly a 

 great pace, but whether fired at or not their flight is very short, 

 and in consequence they can be easily marked down again for a 

 future shot. 



They are very thin skinned birds and take very little killing ; but 

 like the pheasant of these parts, they have the same unaccountable 

 habit, of either falling into the creeks, or else on the opposite bank. 



I remember one day shooting three of these birds consecutively, 

 all of which fell stone dead within a radius of ten yards of each 

 other, but of course on the wrong side of a creek at least thirty 

 yards in width. 



The result being, that my little spaniel had to swim this creek 

 six times, before all were retrieved. 



I always looked on this performance, as a beautiful piece of work 

 on the part of my dog. The day was bitterly cold, and the water 

 half frozen. Although Rock had flushed the birds, he had seen 

 none of them fall, as he was bustling about far below me. And it 

 was a sight for a sportsman to watch him on each occasion, after 



