CHAPTER I 
THE PARTRIDGE AT HOME AND ABROAD 
Our national traditions are so closely associated with 
this favourite game-bird, that its presence could as ill 
be spared from our midst in these breech-loading 
days as when it afforded sport to our hawking 
ancestors. Few will deny the pleasure that the 
partridge has conferred upon their rambles amid 
homely scenery, startling them with its abrupt de- 
parture from some clover field, or breaking in upon 
the stillness of a summer evening by the iteration of 
its harsh, unmusical call-note. Whether we wander 
over the downs of the south coast, climb the slopes 
of northern oat-fields, or thread our way through the 
rich pasture lands of the Thames valley, we cannot 
easily forget the presence of this familiar bird or sever 
the chain of memories which the whirr of its short 
wings speedily awakens. This feeling has grown 
upon most of us so strongly that our English meadows 
woud seem to be bereft of one of their most potent 
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