17 AUGUST 1934, Page 15

* *

The Whitewashed Frenchman

On the subject of partridges the new research workers seem to be in favour of a revival of the French or red-legged species. Most of us used to be told that it was a cantankerous bird that drove off the English species as the grey squirrel drives off the brown ; and it was taken as a welcome tendency when the popularity of driving reduced its relative numbers. The modern observer holds that the boot is on the other leg, that the English (or Hungarian) bird is the stronger and the more pugnacious. My own experience (which is not very large or general) is that the French bird does better than the English on heavy clay soils and survives through wet seasons which take heavy toll of the English, though the English is said to face cold and a northern climate the better of the two. In any case there is room for both in this hospitable island ; and if the French bird flies straighter and is a much easier target than the English, the sin is one which the less expert sportsman will readily pardon.