10 
COMiMON PARTRIDGE. 
of air to ruffle tlie surface of the water, I had put off from my hoat-house on the Tain Sands in tlie 
double punt, and was intending to proceed down the firth. As no fowl were seen or heard, I determined 
to ascertain if the shades in the marshes in the “Fendom” were frozen over or sufficiently open to 
harbour Snipe. IVitli a view to discover the state of affairs, our craft was worked as near the shore as 
possible, and the puntman despatched to make an examination of the nearest pools of fresh water. As 
fowl were occasionally found about these moist parts of the ground, he took one of the ten-bore cripple- 
stoppers, and had only been gone a few minutes when a shot was heard, and immediately after a rush 
of wings breaking the stillness of the morning air caught my ear, and a flock of birds I failed at the 
first glance to identify swept round, and were then seen to alight on the edge of a sand-bank, where 
small scattered patches of rank grass struggled for existence in the dry unfruitful soil. The pack, which 
I soon came to the conclusion were a covey of Partridges, were drawn up together in a dense mass 
so dropping the barrel of the big gun over them, I pulled the lanyard, and two only were observed to 
flutter off. On searching round the spot to which the charge had been directed, six and a half brace 
o artridges were discovm’cd, all dead with the exception of a brace, which attempted to make off 
)U wore soon scoured with little exertion, owing to the scanty cover, as John, the puntman, speedily 
re urned with a ilallard he had knocked down and assisted in their capture. A week or so later the 
same season I was gunning further up the firth, near luvershin, and just as the day was closing in we 
appened to be sculling towards some diving fowl in the pool near the railway bridge. Suddenly, while 
we had eased for a few moments as the ducks were out of sight below the surface, and the direction 
m which they would appear was uncertain, I detected a covey of ten Partridges flying at a tremendous 
pace across the water, from the south towards the opposite shore. It was evident that they would pass 
tu iin range; and as the gun was ready for use at the moment, I had merely to fire, holdimr about 
be" The'lhn 1 rt T’ ^ 
dro’pned to the t TT; estimation. Three brace 
below the stce 1 Tf ‘ slal) of rock by the shore just 
below the steep wooded bank, over which the remainder of the covey held their course. 
remarks I could make eonecrning them would be superfluous, and a short reference to a couple of nests 
si“on 1“ ““ I deteetrra pS 
from°tlie mound at t ° ®““‘olied in the thatch of a wheat-stack, about flve-and-twenty feet 
alTou l^ or a coun, 7^ “ m "here I studied 
luou^ii \^G laileci to ascertain the manner in which they reached the ormiml 
of the stack-yard, and only a fortni<rht hitor in tli. ^ ^ 
dogs, in a thick plantation of younc “trees and low stunTT TT"’ 
eight being those of the Partridge “and the remainder Phcasantl’ 117 “ 
was finallv commiffpd tlipro wo i r. it s. lo which species the care of this nest 
south a few days later, and remairedTay^for sleral“we!ks.“ ^ 
