Note 96 — Chapter XVI

Unless they are very young they are little prized at table; and they afford such bad sport to the gun that, notwithstanding their beauty, great pains are now taken in Norfolk and Suffolk to exterminate the breed. Their nests are sought for to be destroyed; and when the snow is on the ground, the old birds are killed in great numbers. It is observed that in proportion as they increase, so do the common partridge decrease. The stronger bird, according to the general law of nature, drives off the weaker congener. Mr. L——d, A——r’s keeper (of H——n Hall), told me he had on several occasions seen the young red-legged Frenchmen perseveringly attack and eventually kill a whole covey of the less active English squeakers. The late Marquis of Hertford has the credit (?) of having been the first to turn out a few of the strangers. This was nearly fifty years ago at Sudbourn Hall, his seat in Suffolk, whence they have spread over that county and Norfolk, and are fast invading the northern parts of Essex.