To SPRING a Partridge,
to draw a Person in to be bit. To spring Partridges; to raise a Crowd in order to rob or pick Pockets.
· 
· 
Entry taken from 1736 Canting Dictionary, by Nathan Bailey.
· ·
The Vulgar Tongue originally collected by Grose, 1811.
Also see examples in Canting Songs and Slang Rhymes collected by John S. Farmer (1896).