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alighting again on the adjoining stubbles, and, with heads erect, making off at a most incredible 

 pace. Scattering themselves in all directions, they unsettle the English birds that would 

 otherwise lie well in good cover — and of course, from their running before the dogs, were 

 still more objectionable under the old style of Partridge-shooting with pointers or setters. 

 Thus trying his patience in every possible way, it is no great wonder if the sportsman, under 

 such circumstances, delights to bag every Red-leg he can, and considers no distance too far to 

 'let fly' at his feathered tormentors. Nor is he repaid after all his trouble and many disappoint- 

 ments by securing a delicacy for the table, the chief attraction of this species consisting far more 

 in its handsome plumage than its edible qualities. 



" Undoubtedly a fine old male, with its vermilion-coloured beak and legs, its dark gorget, 

 and lovely feathers on the flanks and thighs, is a very striking object, and contrasts well with 

 the more sombre and uniform tints of the common Partridge, when the day's ' bag ' is laid out 

 for inspection. Unsuited, however, as is the usual style of shooting to the habits of French 

 Partridges, they afford fine sport in November and December, when most of the beet and 

 turnips are off the lands, as they then congregate on the ploughed fields, and can be driven over 

 the gunners placed under cover at convenient distances. In fact the ' driving ' system now so 

 generally adopted on the large estates, is unquestionably the proper method of shooting Red-legs, 

 and one which tries well the mettle of the sportsmen, as they mount up higher than the English 

 birds, and fly, when well on the wing, at an almost incredible pace. Yet, at the same time, it 

 must be remembered that such sport can be enjoyed with impunity only on extensive manors, 

 well stocked with birds, since, if attempted too often on limited areas, the Partridges may be 

 thus driven off the land altogether, as surely as by the too frequent use of the ' kite ' at the 

 latter part of the season. A very effectual time also for reducing their numbers is immediately 

 after a good fall of snow, before a night's frost has hardened the surface. No longer able to 

 run, and still unwilling to fly till obliged to take wing, they seem deprived for the time of 

 their usual sagacity, and, seeking shelter in the thickest hedge-rows, if in the enclosed parts of 

 the country, or in the gorse and broom coverts of the light-land districts, afford excellent sport 

 for a couple of guns ' doubling ' the fences, with a steady dog to flush the birds. Advantage is 

 likewise taken by some persons of the altered character of the Red-legs when the snow is on the 

 ground ; for by flushing them again and again, and following them up directly, the birds become 

 sufficiently exhausted to be run down one after the other — a method not unfrequently adopted 

 by poachers in districts not strictly preserved. Under similar circumstances our English birds, 

 if they seek cover at all, betake themselves to the thickest plantation, frequenting the hedge- 

 rows even less than at other times ; but they prefer, for the most part, the open fields, where 

 their dark forms are plainly visible on the white ground, and where they are more difficult than 

 ever to approach within shot. There is no reason, however, to suppose from this habit that the 

 Red-leg is more susceptible of cold than the Grey Partridge, as, with the same opportunities of 

 procuring food, I have never found their condition affected by the sharpest weather ; indeed 

 they come to us from a country where the winters are uniformly more severe than our own. 



" They frequent both heavy and light lands ; and I have frequently found them plentiful on 

 heavy-land farms where the English birds have been comparatively scarce, thus filling a void ; 

 for as French birds thrive well where, before their introduction, the Grey Partridge was not 



