PARTRIDGES, FRENCH AND ENGLISH.
The rapid clearing of the fields and the date have disclosed the nakedness of the land to sportsmen. In some eastern districts the only partridges are old partridges.; and the idea that it is a very bad partridge year is so prevalent that partridges—so some distributors say—are unsaleable. The public has decided that they could not be bought, and so refuses to buy ! An individual or local experience is nearly valueless in England where every parish differs from its neigh- bour, and the eastern county is removed by a world from the western. But it may be worth recording that in one little district, at any rate, the partridges are legion, the coveys big and so strong on the wing as to be wild. One oddity of the season is that an altogether unusual number of" French- men" have been seen, and shot. On the subject of the French partridge, how soon do the coveys, the families, break up ? The question has been hotly discussed of late, even among experienced sportsmen. My belief is that the birds are so fond of Shanks his mare that on alarm the coveys become separated before they are flushed, and consequently get up in ones, or at most in twos or threes ; and the covey, though really in being, is not recognized as such. Neverthe- less, it is curious how seldom a complete covey comes over the guns, even early in the season. Do French partridges ever " pack" ? In my experience they are usually as solitary aa 'snipe towards the end of the season.
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