RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE. 
•250 
An importation on the other side of the county also 
appears to have been unsuccessful, for Wise ^ records 
in 1862, that the late Mr. Baring, of Somerley, introduced 
them many years ago ; " but very few, if any, are left." 
It was in the " sixties " and " seventies " that this bird 
first obtained a footing in the county, and Mr. Charles 
Evemy, of Burley, one of the forest agisters, informs us 
that he remembers placing about a hundred and fifty 
eggs of this species in the nests of the common partridge 
on the Heron Court Estate in the year 1867, by Lord 
Malmesbury's orders. He believes that they were intro- 
duced at Beaulieu a few years earlier ; and here, so the 
Hon. John Scott-Montagu tells us, they have existed from 
about the year 1864, since which time they have greatly 
increased, and are now widely distributed both in the 
woods and in the open country. 
Bell, writing in 1877, calls it rare, but mentions its 
occurrence at Holybourne, near Alton, and Mr. Harting, 
writing in the "Field" in 1883, records examples from 
Petersfield, Butser Hill, Liss, Alresford and Thruxton. 
In the Isle of Wight it is still extremely rare. 
More only knew of two examples, " both single birds, 
and probably stragglers from the mainland ; " but we are 
informed that a few examples have lately been procured 
at Ramsdown and Loverston, which are considered to 
have been introduced from eggs mixed with those of the 
common partridge. 
Mr. Witherby saw a pair below Hedon Hill, near 
Totland Bay, in April, 1905. 
' " New Forest." 
