The partridge at Christmas is at his best--as a test of reputations.
In this respect there is a world of difference between the slow,
simple yellow-legged bird of September and the partridge of December.
To bag a brace from a September covey is satisfactory to a sportsman.
To get a bird with each barrel at an October drive is no mean thing.
But to bring off a double event at Christmas partridges is to make a
reputation. And it is to experience a feeling of goodwill towards the
whole world. For Christmas and cold hands excuse a multitude of misses.
The birds whirl over the line of guns like brown clusters of bullets.
And if the sportsman is tested, the gamekeeper's reputation hangs
also in the balance; his highest art is called for if he is to drive
birds in the desired direction. Whether or not his birds have been
much harassed by previous driving makes a difference to his chances.
Success will be appreciated, for sportsmen keenly relish a selected
partridge drive as a foretaste to a pheasant shoot. When the drive is
over and the pheasants' turn has come, they feel in slightly faster but
certainly smoother water.
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