He likes not those who bring him down:

From age to age he has preferred

The shots who blaze into the brown,

Whose stocks come never shoulder-high,

Who never pause to pick and choose,

But on whose biceps you descry

The black, the blue, the tell-tale bruise.

Or should a stubborn cartridge swell,

And jam, as it may chance, your gun,

The sly old partridge knows it well,