each side the same, but rufous on the outside; the five outer ones rufous on both sides; the legs are red, and the male only has the blunt knob or spur behind them. It is a common pastime in the Isle of Cyprus to use these birds as we do Game Cocks, for the rational amusement of butchering each other. This species is abundant in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, in many parts of Italy and France, and also in the islands of Madeira, Jersey, and Guernsey, and is so plentiful in the Isle of Nansio, as to be the pest of the inhabitants, who make it a rule, to collect as many eggs as possible every year, in order to lessen the breed, which in some seasons have totally eaten up the fruits of the harvest. These eggs, which are taken by thousands, are prepared with different sauces, and subsist the Islanders for many days. According to TOURNEFORT, they are so tame in the Isle of Scio, that they are driven to seek their food in the fields like so many sheep, and that each family entrusts its Partridges to the common Keeper, who brings them back in the evening, and he calls them together with a whistle, even in the day time. Another account states, "that in the country round Trebizond, a man was seen leading above four thousand Partridges; he marched on the ground, while the Partridges followed him in the air, until he reached a certain camp, three days journey from Trebizond; when he slept, the birds alighted to repose around him, and he could take as many of their number as he pleased." In Provence persons have acquired the art of assembling numerous flocks of Partridges, which obeyed the voice of their conductors with wonderful docility, and it most probably were birds of this specie, which WILLOUGHBY notices, "that a certain Sussex man had by his industry made a Covey of Partridges so tame, that he drove them before him, upon a wager, out of that County to London, though they were absolutely free, and had their wings grown ". The red Partridge is said to be fond of mountainous situations well covered with wood, and it seems as if this species alone was known to the Jews, since in the first book of Samuel it is represented as an inhabitant of the mountains, in DAVID's appeal to SAUL, "The King of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as one would hunt a Partridge on the Mountains." * These Partridges would in all probability have beaten Lord ORFORD's Geese; that Nobleman, in 1740, made a considerable bet with the present Duke of QUEENSBURY, that a drove of Geese would beat an equal number of Turkies in a race from Norwich to London. The event proved the justness of his Lordship's expectations, for the Geese kept on the road with a steady pace, but the Turkies as every evening approached flew to roost in the trees adjoining the road, from which the drivers found it very difficult to dislodge them; in consequence of stopping to sleep, the Geese beat their competitors hollow, arriving at their destination two days before the Turkies. The flesh of these birds is white, and by some considered of higher flavour than the grey; in France they are made into pies and highly esteemed. In two points the red differ from the common Partridges, in being found in flocks, whereas among the latter only those belonging to the same covey herd together; the red are also observed to perch on trees, &c. which the common Partridges never do, and perhaps have not the faculty to do so; yet in roosting upon the ground, they are not indifferent to their own preservation; for through apprehensions from Polecats, Stoats, &c. they never trust themselves to coverts, but nestle together in the midst of large fields, far removed from hedges and coppices, which they love to haunt in the day-time, and wherein they can lie more secure from the attacks of rapacious birds. So far back as the time of CHARLES the Second, several pair were turned out about Windsor to obtain a stock, but they are supposed to have perished, altho' some of them, or their descendants, were seen for a few years afterwards. The late Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND preserved many, in hopes of their increasing upon his manors; but the late Earl of ROCHFORD and Marquis of HERTFORD have been at the most expence and trouble to establish them in this country; both these Noblemen had not only numbers of the birds sent over from France, but also imported many thousands of their eggs, which were hatched under Hens, and set at liberty at a proper age; by this means there are now plenty of the red birds upon the latter Nobleman's estate near Orford, in Suffolk. They did not breed numerously at St. Osyth, (Lord ROCHFORD'S,) the soil was not so favourable, yet even here they increased, and now and then a covey of them was found some miles from his Lordship's domain. The Compiler, in 1777; found within two miles of Colchester a covey of fourteen; they were in a very thick piece of turnips, and for half an hour baffled the exertions of a brace of good pointers to make them take wing, and the first which did so immediately perched on the hedge, and was shot in that situation, without its being known what bird it was; a leash more were at length sprung from the turnips and shot, and two days after a brace more of them was killed by another person; from that time until November 1799, he never shot one, he was then out at Sudbourn with a Gen. tleman who was particularly anxious to kill some of these red Partridges, and hunted with a brace of capital pointers for them only; the instant the dogs stood, the red birds ran, and always took wing (notwithstanding all the speed exerted to head them,) at such distances as to be out of the range of the shot from any fowling piece. Upon the same grounds and on the same day they laid until the Springing Spaniels, (with which the Compiler was shooting,) almost. touched them before they arose, and in a short time he killed two brace and a half. Whether the questing of the Spaniels caught their attention, (having never before been attacked in that mode,) or that from being frequently found by Pointers, they perceived and immediately ran from their enemy as the dog became stationary, the Game-keepers who knew their habits, and were not a little surprised at seeing the circumstance, could not determine; they have one peculiarity. that when wounded they will go to ground in the rabbit burrows. |