PHASIAXID^. 2 Go 



■wing to be shot, and when at hist the beaters compelled them to fl\-, it 

 required considerable hardening of the heart to lift our guns against them 

 — but to the conduct of tame reared birds on other occasions. "We had one 

 splendid ring-necked cock, who, after lighting with and driving away all 

 the other cock-birds, took possession of the flower-garden, and at break- 

 fast time would come and peck at the window until he was admitted. 

 Taking up his station b}' the side of his mistress, he would stand, now and 

 then giving vent to a hoarse grunt, until the conclusion of the meal, when 

 he attended her wherever she went about the house, upstairs and down- 

 stairs, and if she went into the garden he would follow, sometimes in 

 playfulness pecking at her dress and hanging on to it behind by his beak. 

 Wishing to shake him off, refuge would be sought in the kitchen-garden, 

 and the door would be shut in his face ; all of no use, as he immediately 

 flew over the wall, continuing his attentions as before. One Sunday he 

 actually accompanied us to church, a quarter of a mile away, running by 

 our side all down the avenue, and only leaving us as we entered the 

 churchyard gate. 



Col. Mathew, who six or seven years since killed a number of Pheasants 

 at big " shoots " in East Devon, has informed us that the proportion of 

 red birds was full seventy-five per cent, of the entire bag, and states that 

 one morning on Captain iSimcoe's estate, near Honiton, he shot two ver}' 

 fine red cocks, which were weighed when the party went into the liouso 

 for luncli, and scaled just nine pounds. 



* Eed-legged Partridge. CaccaUs rufa (Linn.). 



[French Partridge.] 



Introduced. A few have been shot from time to time in various parts 

 of the county. This species was most probably introduced within the last 

 fifty years, as Dr. E. Moore does not include it in his list of Devonshire 

 birds published in Trans. PJym. Ijist. 18:30, although in his appendix to 

 liowe's ' Perambulation of Dartmoor,' publislied in 1S48, he says, 

 "Mr. Newton shot one of these on Broadbuiy Moor, near Bridestow, 

 which is now in his collection." Bellamy, in his 'Natural History of 

 South Devon,' published in Ibiii*, does not mention it. We had in our 

 possession for some time one which was shot l)y the late Mr. Thos. Eloud, 

 about 184-I-, on Waddle Down, near Whitstono Ilill, a few miles fi-oni 

 Exeter (W. D'U.). Two occurred in Nortli Devon in Jan. and Feb. 18.3(5. 



In the ilS. notebooks of the late Mr. Bolitho, bird-stuffer, of Plyniuuth, 

 kindly lent us by Mr. J. Catcombe, we find that he had received mie of 

 theso Partridges which had been shot Ijy Capt. lloo at Worswell Farm, 

 on Dec. 4th, 18J8. Another was met with on March 27A\\, 1802, at 

 Tamerton Foliot. Mr. Jioliiho had otlier specimens of " Frencli i'artridges "' 

 brought to liim in October 1805, June and July 18(57, and August 1872, 

 which were prol)ably killed near I'lymouth. Ono shot near the Start 

 Point in the winter of 1807 was the only example of the Ued-legged 



