COMMON PARTRIDGE. 
PERDIX CINEREA. 
Our old English Partridge, which stands high in the estimation of all sportsmen from north to south 
in the British Islands, is to he found in almost every part of the country where cultivation is carried 
on— most plentiful, of course, where the farmers are proficient agriculturists, though a few coveys are 
not unfrequently met with in the remotest Ilighland glens. In these wild districts the birds are forced 
to put up with such accommodation as is to ho obtained ; this usually consists of scattered patches of land 
devoted to growing grain, and a few swampy hay-fields on the low ground along the course of the 
river or loch or adjoining the burn-side. During my wanderings in the Outer Islands of the Hebrides I 
did not fall m with this species, though it is asserted on good authority that they are established in several 
localities where protection is offered and the situation is suitable to their requirements. 
In former days the old-fashioned sportsman, armed with his antiquated flint and steel, and attended 
by a well-broken pointer, was content with a very moderate bag, twenty or thirty brace being considered 
a grand day’s work and well worthy of mention. By driving, and even over dogs, immense bags have 
een obtained since those days, 390 brace of hand-reared and 157 brace of wild birds being recorded as 
secured in two days’ shooting by an enterprising individual a few years back. As is still the fashion 
several writms in days gone by vented their irritation by having a fling at those “ slaughterers ” who took 
a pleasure in “destroying” inordinate quantities of game, as they were pleased to term such bags of 
ar 11 ges. Unreasonable sportsmen,” we are informed by these sarcastic reporters, “killed twentv and 
s^mtimes thirty brace m a day.” In the time of IVilliam Macgillivray, author of the well-known 
istory of British Birds,’ though the supply in the market must have been exceedingly limited compared 
vuth what It IS at the present day, the price was decidedly low, that thrifty Highlander remarking, with reo-ard 
iis species, “ as an article of food, they are not beyond the reach of the middle classes of society,” the 
average price of a pair being half-a-crown.” 
The years I devoted to shooting and collecting having been mostly passed cither on the Scotch hill- 
siaes and firths or the Snipe-marshes adjoining the Norfolk broads, or in the fens of Cambrid-re as 
ZL r r“ 'T" I never come across any really first-class 
s retch of ground adapted for Partridge-shooting. There was, however, little difficulty in ascertaining that 
Osely killing down the vermin, and keeping a constant watch to check all poaching, in addition to 
remaining on good terms with one’s workmen and shepherds, were the main points to he considered in order 
aise a air stock of birds in any locality where the nature of the country was suitable to their 
requirements. Stray cats, Crows, weasels, and stoats should be exterminated if possible, and last, but not 
east the prowling roadside gunner, who makes his raids either on foot or mounted in a light cart with 
shafts, requires careful watching before he can be captured. Those who 
eep le country at night witli drag-nets, if well up in their liusiness, are bound to cause much loss. 
