254 TWO VARIETIES OF PAHTRIDGB. 



country (night nets being unknown) is tlieir chief 

 protection from the gun of the sportsman. I met 

 with two distinct varieties of partridge in North 

 Wales ; the mountain bird being of much smaller 

 size and of a lighter brown than those bred in the 

 low lands, which are finer and of better flavour 

 than any I ever saw in England. The coveys 

 generally were larger, often exceeding twenty in 

 number, and from the hilly nature of the country, 

 and the soil being light and stony, it is evidently 

 most favourable to the young broods of winged 

 game, from the absence of those large fissures 

 of the land in the heavier soils of England, pro- 

 duced by the heat of the w^eather dm-ing the 

 breeding season, in which thousands of young 

 partridges and pheasants are annually engulphed 

 before they have obtained the use of their wings. 

 The hares and rabbits also were of larger size, the 

 flesh of the latter being exceedingly white and 

 well flavoured. 



A few years ago shootings might be obtained on 

 very moderate terms, but the Manchester Cotton 

 Lords are now buying up the land in all direc- 

 tions, and the race of old Welsh squires, like that 

 of the North American Indians, is rapidly disap- 

 pearing from their old hunting grounds. Wood- 

 cocks, which abounded formerly in North Wales, 



