54 THE GREY PARTRIDGE. 



But you may sometimes get good sport even with Greys. 

 You may get them into standing crops ; gram by choice, when 

 nearly ripe, very luxuriant, and grown in soil which breaks up 

 into huge heavy clods (never broken or smoothed after sowing 

 gram), and in this no bird can run. 



In such places they are obliged to lie, and then they afford 

 very good shooting. Near the junction of the Jumna and the 

 Chambal, behind Bhurrey (and the birds swarm in the ravines 

 all round), there were fields in which, year after year, I used, 

 when the gram was just beginning to ripen, to bag for three or 

 four successive days from ten to fifteen (and once I got 21) brace 

 in a couple of hours shooting in the evening. 



You may also have some fun, where the scrub is in moderate- 

 sized patches, by hiding behind a bush outside one end, and 

 putting the beaters in at the other, and so getting the birds driven 

 over and past you. Of course you get hares also, and a buck 

 possibly, and it is real lazy sport, as you can ride your pony from 

 patch to patch, get heaps of shots, and never walk a yard ! 

 Captain Butler says : — 



" The most successful way of shooting Grey Partridge, so far 

 as my experience goes, is to take a dog out with you ; any dog 

 that will hunt about will do. The birds then, instead of running, 

 fly up into the nearest trees the moment they see the dog, 

 whence they can easily be dislodged and shot." I have tried 

 this plan also with some success. 



But, as a rule, they are not worth going after, and when shot 

 even in places far from villages, they are hardly worth eating, 

 since, cook them as you will, the flesh, though white, is hard, dry 

 and insipid. 



Partridge-fighting, the birds being naturally excessively 

 pugnacious, is a very favourite sport amongst Muhammadans. 

 Lucknow used to be a great place for this ; and they become 

 very tame in captivity, and all classes of natives are fond of 

 keeping them as pets, so that there is a considerable demand 

 for these birds. As remarked by Mr. Reed, writing from 

 Lucknow : — 



" Good birds, i.e., males, command a large price in the market, 

 and the native bird-catchers are for ever after them, caring little 

 how or when they effect their capture, whether in or out of 

 season. Some of these gentlemen catch the young birds just 

 after they have left the shell ; others again lift the eggs and 

 hatch them under domestic hens. Their plan of capturing old 

 males in snares, nets, trap-cages, &c, with the aid of call birds, 

 answers well, judging from the numbers weekly brought into 

 the market for sale. Sometimes the wild bird may be taken by 

 the hand when engaged in fighting the call bird, which is let 

 loose into the jungle for the purpose, but the surest way — and 

 that I believe most generally adopted here — is to throw a net 

 over them both." 



