Fores's Sporting Notes & Sketches (Volume 24)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907. Excerpt: ... POETS AND PARTRIDGES. By 'east Sussex.' 'The mellow autumn came, and with it came The promised party to enjoy its sweets. The corn is out, the manor full of game; The pointer ranges, and the sportsman beats In russet jacket--lynx-like is his aim; Full grows his bag, and wonderful his feats. Ah! nut-brown partridges!' BYRON, Don Juan, Canto XIII. HERE are so many fascinating points in the personality of the 'little brown bird' that one is not the least surprised to come across him in the poets almost as frequently as among the turnips. Of all the game birds in the world, the partridge has been singled out for special adoration, despite the fact that in handsomeness of plumage there are many that can put him to shame, and others whose vocal powers are certainly of a higher standard. Perhaps it is because he cannot sing his own praises (for nobody would accuse the partridge, with his harsh, grating call, of being a musical bird) that so many poets of importance, and others of no importance at all, have extolled him up hill and down dale, and held him up to mankind as a paragon of all the virtues. In nearly every shooting song that ever was written, the partridge is referred to in no measured terms of commendation as the most sporting of birds, and right well does he deserve the compliment. Equally loud are the encomiums of those who have sung of him in times of peace, and although, perhaps, his good points have been a little exaggerated in one or two instances, it is satisfactory to find that no one has a bad word to say against him. The devotion of the hen-partridge to her eggs or young, and also of the cock-bird, on occasion, has been, perhaps, the most favourite theme of partridge-poets all through the ages. Spenser certainly alludes, in his Faery Queen, ...