
Inherently not shy birds, redlegs learn rapidly to run and fly 
well ahead of the sportsman wherever they are heavily hunted. Fast fliers 
and artful swervers with keen eyes for danger, they are well able to care 
for themselves. Inhabiting agricultural and rough lands alike, but not 
being addicted to the mountainous country and steep terrain as are the 
chukars, the redlegs provide at least 80 percent of the shooting for 
sport in Spain. In a bumper year up to 3,000,000 and in a normal year 
some 2,000,000 birds are shot in Spain without cutting too deeply into 
the breeding stock left for the succeeding season. This represents an 
astonishing harvest for a country only slightly larger than the State 
of California. 
Only three hunting methods have been commonly practiced. 
Birds may be lured within range of the gun with the aid of live callers 
set in a cage in a likely covert. Males, mostly, are attracted and are 
shot on the ground. This practice has recently been outlawed. 
The most common way of shooting redlegs in the open country 
is to walk them up either with or without a dog. Parties of 3 to 15 
hunters form a rough line and advance through likely cover, shooting 
such birds as do not run or fly up out of range. Where the birds are 
not much hunted, fair bags can be had by this method though only with 
a knowledge of the country and of the habits of the birds and then with 
the assistance of a serviceable set of legs. Some birds lie well to a 
dog, especially in windy or rainy weather but, like pheasants, most 
soon learn to keep well ahead of the hunters. 
Hunting over dogs is practiced mostly in northern Spain, which 
is less arid. Around Burgos and Palencia a special breed of short- 
haired pointing dogs called "pachon" or "“perdiguero" have been developed 
for partridge hunting. These dogs, like pointers, have keen noses but 
are quiet and slow of movement so as not to flush the birds well out of 
_ range. 
The real delight of the well-to-do partridge enthusiast is the 
ojeo or drive. This method, introduced some 200 years ago from England 
as a sport of royalty, now accounts for perhaps one-half of all the 
birds shot in Spain. Most fincas or farms organize 2 to 5 ojeos a year, 
although the same coverts are seldom driven more than two or three 
times a season if the hunts are well managed. 
Small ojeos are often conducted on an informal basis, but the 
larger ones are highly organized. In these, 40 to 75 beaters, with 
much shouting, ‘whistling, and clatter of sticks, slowly drive the 
birds, often from an area a mile or more square,. to the guns. Six to 
eight shooters usually take part. Each gunner occupies his own butt. 
These blinds are built shoulder high of brush and are placed 50 to 
150 yards apart in a row. Each shooter is provided with 1 or 2 
secretarios to load the guns, pick up the birds, and carry game and 
equipment. 
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