THE RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE 117 



landowners, following the example thus set them, 

 gave fresh broods their liberty, and so helped to 

 stock the county. 



If now we endeavour to trace the lines of 

 dispersal from these various centres, it will be seen 

 that there was at first no tendency on the part of 

 the birds to move in any one direction ; for example, 

 southwards, as many species move in autumn. 

 They apparently dispersed in all directions. Those 

 reared at Alnwick, it would seem, could not have 

 increased to any great extent, for we find no record 

 of their appearance in either of the adjoining 

 counties of Durham or Cumberland, though twenty 

 years ago they were reported as breeding in 

 Westmorland, where it is possible they may have 

 found their way from the Northumberland border. 



Some of the Norfolk birds wandering northward 

 to the shores of the Wash boldly crossed over into 

 South Lincolnshire, where they are now fairly 

 established, and have gradually found their way into 

 the northern division of that county. Mr Cordeaux, 

 of Great Cotes, near Ulceby, writing in 1874 

 (^Zoologist, 1874, p. 4224), says of the Red-legged 

 Partridge : " This bird is becoming quite common in 

 that part of South Lincolnshire bordering the Wash 

 and opposite the county of Norfolk. I am told it 

 has of late years gradually extended its range in 

 that district." In his Birds of the Humber District, 

 the same writer says (p. 81): "The Red-legged 

 Partridge is fortunately only an occasional wanderer 

 into North Lincolnshire. I have seen birds that 

 •were shot in the neighbourhood of Ashby, near the 



