CHAPTER XIIL 



THE PARTRIDGE: Natural History. The Common 

 Partridge. The French Partridge. 



WE have in the British Isles two species of partridge 

 that which we know as the Common or English Partridge, 

 and the so-called French or Red-legged bird, an importa- 

 tion of comparatively recent times. Both species resemble 

 one another in some respects, as they are dissimilar in 

 others. The former is by far the superior game-bird, and 

 lends itself to the influence of preservation far more easily 

 and readily than does the latter. It possesses many 

 claims upon British sportsmen of all descriptions, for 

 besides being practically indigenous, the sport which it 

 affords extends alike to the most modest and to the most 

 exacting of game-shooters. Of late years the systems of 

 preservation to which it is subjected have been greatly 

 extended, however, and in many districts the partridge 

 occupies a position quite unthought of not very many years 

 ago. It is, however, as the popular game-bird of British 

 preserves that it is chiefly held in esteem, and as such it 

 is first necessary to deal with it. 



The partridge's beau-ideal of a home is an essentially 

 English spot in the landscape. A bright warm wheat 

 stubble, a pasture growing such grasses as form its best- 

 liked cover, with a little expanse of broken ground, over- 

 grown with brake, hard by, and you have just the locality 

 a partridge loves to haunt. In character, it is a quiet 



