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. MHastily 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 
‘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. 
