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Bang! bang! And the birds, killed high in the air, fall dead some thirty yards behind the 

 gunners. An old hand, perhaps, bags his brace, though coming at heaven knows what an hour ; 

 for the pace of a Partridge thus flushed at a distance is something extraordinary. Ask the 

 novice, for instance, after such a flight, if he got a shot that time 1 ' Shot ! What at % I heard 

 you fire ; and something came with a whish past my head ; but it was gone before I turned round.' 

 Yet this style of shooting, which to sportsmen of the old school would have appeared an impos- 

 sibility, is now accomplished with such certainty by the crack shots of the day, that at Beech- 

 amwell, near Swaffham, towards the close of the past season, a party of guns killed four hundred 

 Partridges, in one day, by ' driving ' only. 



" It is by no means an unusual circumstance for Partridges when flushed in the vicinity of 

 the telegraph-wires to fly against them in their headlong course. At Lading, where the Inter- 

 national telegraph crosses an extensive heath, preserved for sporting-purposes, I have known as 

 many as six or eight birds thus killed in one day when driven forward by the beaters ; and 

 Mr. Alfred Newton informs me that when shooting at Elvedon, near Thetford, he has seen five 

 birds killed out of a covey in the same way. They are also occasionally found dead under the 

 wires on foggy mornings, but this more particularly in places where the wires have but recently 

 been introduced." 



Mr. Carl Sachse, writing from Altenkirchen, Bhenish Prussia, sends me a few notes 

 respecting the Partridge, which I translate as follows : — " This bird is not very numerous here ; 

 but in the lowlands of the Rhine it is three times as common. During severe snowy winters it 

 happens sometimes that they become exterminated ; and it then takes from three to five years to 

 restock the district. This last year they were not numerous, and I reckon that in an area of 

 about 7000 hectares there were only about forty coveys. They nest with us here in young woods, 

 in clover-, oat-, and corn-fields, &c, but never in the meadows, as they so frequently do near the 

 Rhine. They breed about the middle of May ; and if disturbed and the nest is forsaken, the 

 female makes a fresh nest, but deposits four or six eggs less than the normal number. Old 

 birds deposit as many as twenty-four eggs, but young ones only lay from three to twelve. • Owing 

 to scarcity of food they sometimes leave the district, pack in flocks of fifty to a hundred or more, 

 and go in search of better feeding-grounds. In October, when out shooting, I met with one 

 such travelling flock of about fifty, and a second of about a hundred birds ; but they were so shy 

 that I could not approach them ; and when they rose they flew so far that I could not mark 

 them down. When much disturbed they will also leave. A covey of albinoes were hatched near 

 here ; and being so easily seen, they were hunted after almost every day. They became so shy 

 that they could not be approached, and finally left altogether, and were soon after seen near 

 Luiz, on the Rhine, distant about twenty-four kilometres." 



Varieties in plumage of the Partridge are not very uncommon. I have seen many partial 

 albinoes and very pale varieties, as well as peculiarly brown-marked and partially cream-coloured 

 birds. Mr. Hancock showed me some extremely beautiful varieties, which he has figured (B. of 

 North. & Durham, pis. 11, 12) ; and Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown writes to me as follows: — " I have 

 in my possession three specimens of this bird showing the variety with the white horseshoe-mark 

 on the breast. It is worthy of remark that tbis variety appears to be gaining ground and 

 becoming more numerous in some localities in Scotland, notably, I believe, in East Lothian. I 



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