Birds. 



6095 



hole, which was so small that so large a bird must of necessity have pressed against 

 the whole circumference of the orifice in forcing its body through. Very many years 

 subsequent to the event related above, the gamekeeper of a friend in the Weald of 

 Kent told me, that, when attending his master at some time previously, he had marked 

 down a cock pheasant from the hill where he was standing, in a wood upon an oppo- 

 site hill, but, upon reaching the spot, no pheasant, nor trace of a pheasant could be 

 discovered, though the underwood being of only, I think, one year's growth, there was 

 nothing to puzzle for a moment a team of, probably, from three to five well-trained 

 Sussex spaniels. After searching fruitlessly for some distance around, in utter per- 

 plexity the man said, either aloud or to himself, " I am quite certain I saw the bird 

 settle precisely at this bush," into which, as he spoke, he thrust a switch he carried, 

 when the pheasant instantly rose from the very centre, where he had been lying 

 quietly while his pursuers, men and dogs, were hunting for him, separated otily by a 

 few inches of twigs. In this case, if the dogs had been pointers or setters, very pro- 

 bably they would have delected the presence of the game, whereas spaniels, working 

 with their noses close to the earth, were not aware of the vicinity of the bird, because 

 he had dropped at once into the bush without leaving any trail upon the ground. 

 When, however, we consider, that several trained dogs with very fine noses (which the 

 old Sussex spaniels unquestionably possess) were seeking their own peculiar game, 

 and aware they were expected to find some there (which good, experienced dogs will 

 understand from the orders given them), it seems strange that they should not discover, 

 nor even suspect how very near they were to their object, if the odour of the game had 

 been as widely diffused through the atmosphere, as it certainly would be under ordi- 

 nary circumstances: the pheasant, while resting upon the underwood-stock, might 

 have been raised above the soil perhaps from nine to, in the extreme, eighteen inches. 

 — Arthur Hussey ; Rolf higdean, May, 1858. 



Synall Variety of the Partridge. — Two of the correspondents of the 'Zoologist' 

 have inserted short notices of the supposed variety of partridge, and in connexion 

 with my paper on that bird, which I trust, they will think, justifies me in addressing 

 this note to them. It would appear that their observations have been made on birds 

 found in the same district and not in distant parts of it; as the one writes from 

 Godalming, the other from Fowey, near Liphook. Will they permit me to draw their 

 attention to the remarkable discrepancy in their several notices of the plumage of these 

 birds? Major Spicer writes, "There is no difference of plumage that I can detect." 

 (Zuol. 6014). Mr. Waring Kidd, on the other hand, speaks of them as known to him 

 and others by the name of "little black heath-birds," as being " invariably of a blacker 

 colour'' than the ordinary partridge; and accounts for their " dark colour" as origi- 

 nating in their food or part of it. (Zool. 6059). I do not know how far apart Fowey 

 and Hindhead are, — I think not many miles, — and it certainly is an interesting fact, if 

 these partridges diff'er so greatly and so commonly as the communications of the two 

 gentlemen named lead us to infer. I confess when I saw in the 'Field' a sort of 

 challenge thrown out for the production of those smaller birds, — the editor to be the 

 judge, — and excuses instead of partridges were forwarded to that gentleman, I began 

 to have great doubts as to their existence anywhere, except in imagination. I think 

 the concurrent testimony of Major Spicer and Mr. Kidd, both of whom agree in 

 stating the inferiority, in point of size, in comparison with the common bird to 

 be about one-third, important ; and that it is at least worth while to call their attention 



