34 
THE WELCOME CALL-NOTE. 
the servant immediately raised a doleful cry, which brought her 
master in from the yard; when, pointing to the bare spit, she 
said — 
<0h, dear! oh, dear! the two beautiful birds; it did me good 
only to smell them, and now they are gone : a thieving monk came 
in, and carried them away in his wallet.' 
' Where is he ? Where is the thief ? ' asked the disappointed 
cure. 
* There ! there ! ' said the servant, pointing to the friar, who was 
not yet out of sight. *Do you not see him, running away, like a 
rogue as he is ? ' 
Carving-knife in hand, the cure set off in pursuit of the fancied 
robber, crying out at the top of his voice, as he found that he rather 
lost than gained ground — 
* Stop ! stop ! let me have one — at least one I * 
But the fugitive, who imagined his ears were referred to, shouted 
back, without slackening his speed — 
'Ma foi\ monsieur le cure, ye shall have neither the one nor the 
other/ 
How the discomfited carer for souls bore his disappoint- 
ment, and whether he ever discovered the cheat, the legend 
telleth not ; we quote it as ajoropos to our subject. The 
idea, that Partridge's flesh is fit food for the clergy, seems 
to be deeply rooted in the national mind of France, if we 
may judge by this little bit of popular ^ folk lore.' 
But all this takes us away from the clover-field and the 
barley stubble, the turnip or potato patch, the vetches or 
feathery rye grass, from amid which the stealthy and sure- 
scented dog most frequently turns up the startled covey, 
with the well-known ivhir-r-r-r so pleasant to the sports- 
man's ears ; or where may be heard the call-note ^ tezich^ 
tezickj to which he listens with no less pleasure and inte- 
rest, as described by Gisborne : — 
As when the gunner on his stubbly way, 
Pausing his arras afresh to prime, suspends 
The lifted flask, and his exploring ear 
Turns if perchance the long-lost partridge calls. 
In the poetry of Burns, and other Scottish writers, we 
find a name given to this bird which sounds strange in 
southern ears; for instance, in the lines on the death of 
Captain Henderson, we read : — 
