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their heads and they immediately took to hurried and terrified 
flight. One of the best proofs of the family feeling of partridges is 
that, of the number of birds which roost on the ground, and their 
name is not legion, they, together with the grouse and ptarmigan, 
herd in one mass, their contiguity, doubtless, inspiring them with 
a sense of security against nocturnal marauders. 
Buffon states that there are three species and one variety of 
partridge, but with two only of these are we, in this country at 
least, concerned—the grey, and the red or red-legged partridge, or 
what I believe to be erroneously called the French partridge. The 
character of the two species is widely different, for while the grey 
is one of the pluckiest and hardiest of birds, its congener the red- 
legged kind is quite the reverse, and I have with my own hand 
captured the latter sort on the ground after a flight of a very few 
hundred yards. My reason for stating that the red-legged is 
wrongly termed the French partridge is that amongst the number 
brought to the bag during “ chasses” in France at which I have 
assisted, I have not discovered one of the sort, in fact, the sum 
total was made up entirely of perdrix grise , the grey species, or 
what is commonly called the English partridge. As regards their 
edible properties, the latter is infinitely superior, while the flesh of 
the red-legged partridge is flabby and insipid and requires the 
master-hand of the chef to render it fit for the table. There is a 
curious distinctive mark, apart from the plumage, between the two 
kinds of partridges. The red species has at the end of the first 
year an excrescence on its legs just below the bend of the hock; 
after two years a double growth takes place, and so on, acting as it 
were like a record of its age, in the same manner as the rings in the 
trunk of a tree are supposed to enumerate the years of its growth. 
The partridge is by nature an exceedingly wild bird and one 
which it is almost impossible to domesticate, although I have seen 
in the county of Suffolk a horde of about forty frequent the 
neighbourhood of a large house and actually feed out of one’s hand, 
but they seldom, if ever, lay eggs when confined in aviaries. 
I cannot say whether or no my experience tallies with that of 
my brother sportsmen in Hertfordshire, but either owing to the 
gravelly, flinty soil, or from other causes, I have found the 
partridges of this county more difficult of approach than those of 
any other county or country, and accurate must be his eye, stalwart 
his frame, and skilled his marksmanship, who wishes in this neigh¬ 
bourhood to make a creditable return by the end of the day. 
