Page:Bird Life Throughout the Year (Salter, 1913).djvu/263

Rh killed by a sparrow-hawk, her family amalgamated with another brood, forming a fine joint covey of twenty-five. The light soils of East Anglia seem specially favourable to the Red-legged or French Partridge, less of a favourite than the original breed on account of its habit of running before the dogs. Sometimes in partridge-shooting the unexpected happens. A bevy of quail is flushed, or a corncrake takes wing, but only as a last resource when it can no longer run or hide. As the dogs work down towards the marsh-ditches, a water-rail or spotted-crake may be brought to bag. That scarce visitor, the great-snipe, has a habit of presenting itself to the sportsman as the dogs are working a patch of turnips, a potato-field or a barley stubble where nothing but partridges is expected. Thus our knowledge of the natural history of a district is often indebted to sport for contributions not a few, and more especially to those gunners who, having found a rare bird, proceed to make a note of its occurrence.

Though the first of October is the date fixed for legal execution of the pheasant, September sees the thinning of the partridge coveys and inaugurates that part of the shooting season which chiefly interests the general public. Hence it is no unsuitable time for considering