THE BIRDS. 
179 
partridge gets up more slowly and flies higher. 
The big partridge abounded, and, with a dog, 
we could always get the four or five we wanted. 
In Uruguay the small partridge has always 
been common, and now that grain growing is 
spreading the big partridge, formerly rare, is 
increasing. The small partridge is very 
numerous. In an estancia on which I stayed 
in that country three hundred brace have been 
shot by four guns in a short day. I was there 
in the nesting season, when of course they were 
protected, but you put them up in quantities as 
you rode over the campo. The eggs of the 
partridges are of a rare and lovely colour : they 
are quite plain, of the tint of old claret or of 
the darker ground of an Aubusson carpet. They 
fade, however, rapidly, and become dull brown 
in colour. 
Next to the partridge come the duck. The 
‘pato reale, ’ the Royal Duck, dusky black and 
white, must be the biggest duck in the world; 
one we got measured thirty-two inches, which 
is nearly as big as our Bean Goose and consider¬ 
ably bigger than our Bernacle. He is really a 
splendid trophy, with his chocolate-black body 
and clear white wing patches. There were a 
lot about, but they were not easy to get: I saw 
them chiefly at flight, a long way off usually. 
The other duck we got were the White-Faced 
Tree-Duck, and the beautiful little Brazilian 
Teal, with his iridescent plumage and his 
