124 The Natural History of British Game Birds 
Bags of over two and three thousand brace per season have often been obtained in 
Norfolk, Suffolk, and the Newmarket district of Cambridgeshire. In no place have I 
seen such swarms of Partridges as at Horse-heath near Newmarket, where I had the 
pleasure of shooting one day with the Duke of Fife. We killed 250 brace in a short 
winter day, and if the guns had been good should have doubled the bag. Sixmile 
Bottom, Chevely, Chippenham Park, Ickworth, Stetchworth, Lulford, and Brabraham, 
are all remarkable both for pheasants and Partridges, and I have had many delightful 
days at the little brown bird at the last-named estate as the guest of my dear friend, 
the late Robert Bovill. Extraordinary bags of Partridges have also been obtained 
at Elvedon, in Norfolk, both during the time of the late Maharajah Duleep Singh and 
the present owner, Lord Iveagh ; also on Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire, belonging 
to the Duke of Portland. I think I am correct in saying that 700 brace were obtained 
there in one day. In Scotland, Wigtown, 1 East Lothian, 2 Forfar, 3 and Perthshire have 
produced bags that would satisfy the most greedy shooter, but the taste for raising 
immense quantities of game has increased of late years, and may do so for a time ; 
but there is a limit, and that limit has been reached for the best sportsmen, who are 
now inclined to revolt against artificial aids to increase the stock, which is often the 
only method by which enormous totals can be achieved. 
In Hungary the rearing of Partridges is carried to an absurd length, in the desire 
to eclipse records. We have only to look at the numbers of Partridges killed and the 
methods employed on the estates of Prince Trautmansdorff and the late Baron de 
Hirsch, where bags of 1000 brace per day were almost common, to see how artificial 
a genuine sport may become. 
By the expenditure of immense sums of money, and an army of beaters harrying 
the birds to an unfair extent, 2870 Partridges have been killed in a single day by one 
of the late Baron de Hirsch's parties, and no fewer than 17,048 Partridges in one season 
(1892). When all is said and done, I doubt very much if the noble baron got one-fifth 
of the pleasure out of his much-advertised pageantry as some humble sportsman has 
found in a few fields where birds were wild and straight shooting a necessity. 
Certain varieties of the Partridge are common, such as all buff and those with 
white wings or " pied," but all other variations must be considered rare. I have only 
seen about twelve or fourteen quite pure white examples. A regular "irregularity" 
is the variety in which the chestnut or blood-red suffuses a greater part of the entire 
plumage. When first noticed early in the last century it was supposed to be a distinct 
species, and was named Perdix montana (Brisson), or the Mountain Partridge, but 
since that date dozens of examples have been killed in different parts of England, 
Scotland, and Wales. It is also of frequent occurrence in Norfolk, Staffordshire,' and 
Salop. I have seen at least twenty examples from Northumberland alone, and there 
are fine specimens set up by the late John Hancock in the Newcastle Museum. Mr. 
Walter Rothschild also possesses a fine series of this variety, mostly from foreign 
1 Monreith is famous for its Partridges, and one gun has killed 100 brace in a day there. 
2 The Archerfield, Gosford, and Yester Estates produce great numbers of Partridges annually. 
3 Glamis, the Dalhousie estates, and Fotheringham, are about the best Partridge grounds in Forfarshire. 
4 I am indebted to Mr. John R. B. Masefield for his paper on the occurrences of the rufous variety of the Common 
Partridge in Staffordshire, where a number of instances have occurred. 
