PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 63 



the whirr of wings. Evidently the birds were 

 coming straight for him. The next moment the 

 swish of wings told him they had turned along 

 the other side of the hedge. He blazed both 

 barrels through the hedge at a venture, and bagged 

 three and a half brace. 



It is not often that a partridge offers insult in 

 return for intended injury. The mayor of a pro- 

 vincial town was invited to a partridge-drive. He 

 came, and with him the air of ableness usually 

 attached to so exalted a personage. Up to lunch- 

 time evidence was entirely lacking that his worship 

 had contributed anything to the bag. After the 

 meal a solitary partridge came along straight for 

 his head, which he ducked as he swung his gun 

 in the direction of the bird, and fired. The bird 

 took no heed, but calmly alighted on a railing 

 behind the mayor, and within easy shot. There 

 it sat a glorious chance. Hastily he reloaded 

 his gun ; but, as his worship explained, just as he 

 was about to shoot, the bird spread its wings, 

 gave a derisive chirp, and flew away. A farmer 

 told me the following story of his own resource- 

 fulness and the mighty execution of his old gun : 

 During a spell of hard weather he had spotted a 

 4 rare mess of partridges ' feeding round a corn-rick. 

 He could not decide which section of the birds he 

 should brown, since they seemed equally thick all 

 round the rick. Finally he hit on this idea. 



