This South American bird is the color of a mallard hen and not much larger than our Southern bobwhite, but it is commonly referred to as "partridge" because of its similarity to partridges, quail, and pheasants. Its nearest kin, however, is the ostrich, and it comes up from the ground like thunder.

The short grasslands of Uruguay. (Inset) A gentle retrieve.

The perdiz is a member of the tinamou family, with 47 species found from northern Mexico to Tierra del Fuego, South America. But the perdiz, a grassland, steppe and savanna dwelling species, is mostly confined to the southern half of South America. We were hunting in Uruguay and lodged at the Estancia La Nenette, built on a high bluff over seeing the Rio Negro River, which during the summer is filled with combatant fish called dorado.

This was not Uruguay's summer, but rather, its winter…in June. But the country's cold months are not harsh in the least. Only one morning would we wake to a weak frost in this sub-tropical land.

We continued to follow Pepo while several hundred yards away Jerry Magee and Jim Jordan hunted with their dog handler, Daniel Garcia, and another Brittany, Pelyto, a four-year-old male. Pepo and Pelyto are Hector Sarasola's two best Brittanys, and they are widely known throughout Uruguay for their abilities.

Hector, born in 1951 in Montevideo, Uruguay, is built on a solid frame and has intense brown eyes, a flecked salt and pepper beard and streaks of gray running through his black hair. Hector owns the Estancia La Ninette ("little girl" in French) and he says he named the estancia after his Brittany, La Ninette, who was responsible for his business in his early years of hunting clients.

Pepo scenting the air for a perdiz.

"A true sweeper of birds," is how Hector remembers La Ninette. "She was perhaps the best dog I've ever had," he recalled as we talked before an open fireplace in the living area of the lodge one afternoon. This is a man whose passion is Brittanys and perdiz.

"When you come to hunt perdiz with my dogs, you might say that Hector's dogs aren't worth much. That is because you're used to your American trained dogs," he explained. "But these perdiz do not act like bobwhite quail. First, they are not covey birds. Yes, you might find four or five in a rather small area, but they do not flush in a covey. It is more like hunting singles.

"Sometimes you might get two to flush fairly close together but usually it is one bird at a time. And perdiz do not hold well. So you need a slower working dog such as mine. When one of my dogs gets birdy, you must move quickly to the dog to get a shot. Perdiz come up very fast and when they quit flying, they sail for long distances like pheasants."

Hector's credentials are impressive. At age 17, he was the youngest handler ever to win the Hubert Uruguay Championship (with one of his Brittanys) held near Montevideo in a field of 20 dogs. At 18 he placed third in all of South America.

He wanted to show me some of his photos after winning his first championship, but he could not find them. "I was lean and with long hair…but that was a long time ago," he said with a sigh.

In 1987 Hector established his on bloodline of Brittanys and now keeps 10 fully trained dogs and nine in training.

"My system for training dogs is not complicated and mixed with a lot of unnecessary rules. I allow the young dogs to hunt as their breeding dictates," he said. "We begin at 90 days with exercises and obedience, and my dogs are fully trained at eighteen months.