A masked partridge?

I enjoy the physical act of cutting lino and decided that I'd try a Christmas card design. I find working in negative really quite hard so after some careful drawing I managed an outline that I thought might work. However, cutting out the image posed all kinds of other decision making and I'm still learning!! The small size also proved a challenge for cutting very fine detail - I'm not sure I've quite got there yet! My Red-legged Partridge (French Partridge) has come out with a serious masked frown that makes him look like he's defending the pears from all comers!

Yesterday afternoon in the studio I spent my time cutting out a bit more of the lino and then printing to see the effect. Here they are drying on the back of the kitchen door - not in the order they were printed. The greener ones are on a hand-made paper.