G'day,
I think such dialogues are common in various versions of this song. All of the six versions in Child include it, involving: milk-white steed, gay goss-hawk (three off), good gray steed, guid grey hound, berry-brown steed, merry young men, gude grey steed, bonnie grey hound, hawks, bonnie grey steed (two off), merry men a', goodly gawshawk, gallant greyhound, serving-man, but surprisingly, no partridge in a pear tree. Our hero was a lord, a knight or a squire who obviously liked company when pursuing the ladies.

Cheers,
Alan