■ii^n

.^AND
CARTRIDGE ^ MANORS

AYMER 'MAXWELL

mri'NY,^"^'"^^ OF B.c

LIBRARY

3 9424 00444 7683

i?^

CCESSING-ONE
U.B.C. LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY OF
BRITISH COLUMBIA

///J

PARTRIDGES & PARTRIDGE MANORS

AGENTS

America The Macmillan Company

64 & 66 Fifth Avenue, New Yokk

Australasia. . . . The Oxford University Press

205 Flinders Lane, Melbourne

Canada The Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd.

St. Martin's Hou.se, 70 Bond Street Toronto

India Macmillan & Company, Ltd.

Macmillan Building, Bombay
309 Bow Bazaar Street, Calcutta

Germany, Austria '\

Hungary, Russia, I Brockhaus and Pehr.sson
Scandinavia, and j 10 Querstrasse, Leipzig
German Switzerland j

"A Iatal Mistake." A Covey Flying out to Sea.

PAKTRIDGES AND
PAETRIDGE MANORS

BY

CAPTAIN AYMER MAXWELL '^

JOINT AUTHOR OF ' GROUSE AND GROUSE MOORS '

WITH SIXTEEN ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOUR

BY

GEORGE RANKIN

LONDON

ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK

1911

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

University of British Columbia Library

http://www.archive.org/details/partridgespartriOOmaxw

PREFACE

So steady is the flow of sporting literature,
so prolific has the last decade proved in
works on every branch of the chase, that
a word of justification seems necessary ere
offering yet another volume to join the
already serried ranks on those shelves of
the library devoted to the subject.

Perchance some may find, in the
delicate handiwork of our artist, sufficient
excuse for all else there is between the
boards^; yet the writer hopes that, while
there may be nothing in these pages
which has not been said as well or better
before, yet in this attempt at a mono-
graph on the partridge and its relations
to sport there may be found for the first
time a fair and true summary of what is

vi PARTRIDGES

known to - day about the bird and its
ways.

In advancing this claim, the writer is
by no means obhvious of Mr. Charles
Alhngton's manual of Partridge Driv-
ing, a wholly admirable work which has
proved an unfailing source of useful
advice through seven years of practical
application of its principles on partridge
ground. But this is admittedly a book
written by an expert for the use of ex-
perts, and for general purposes the volume
of the *Fur and Feather' series on the
partridge remains the standard work on
the subject. While Mr. Stuart- Wortley's
chapters will always be delightful reading
— perhaps no writer on sport ever achieved
such facility and grace of expression — yet
things have moved apace in the partridge
world since this book was pubUshed fifteen
years ago, and modern methods of pre-
servation differ vastly from those then
in force. ^

' For example, on page 33 of this work occurs the
sentence, *' Certainly it is best that the majority of

PREFACE vii

Due acknowledgment should here be
made of assistance received in compiling
these pages ; especially would the writer
confess his indebtedness to the Duchess
of Bedford for courteously supplying the
notes on foreign partridges at Woburn
Abbey in Chapter II. ; to Mr. C. AUing-
ton for the valuable information and ad-
vice in his letters ; to Mr. G. W. Taylor
for allowing him the benefit of a wide
knowledge and experience by revising and
correcting the chapter on Driving ; and,
finally, to the many kind and ready
contributors of the notes in Chapter V.

partridge nests should escape attention altogether." In
a text-book of to-day this sentence would have to be re-
worded^ and would then read, '' Certainly it is best that
no partridge nest should escape attention altogether."

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

IN DEFENCE OF THE PARTRIDGE

The case for game -preservers — Interests of sport and
agriculture in this case mutual — Economic value of
sport to rural communities — A plea for a right
understanding ...... Page 1

CHAPTER n

NATURAL HISTORY

Distribution and life-history of the partridge — Red-legged
partridges — Foreign varieties suitable for introduction
— Cookery of the partridge . . . .17

CHAPTER m

HISTORICAL

Early records of partridge- shooting — Great sportsmen
of the eighteenth century — Matches — England t*.
Scotland in 1823, etc. — Methods of other days . 61

CHAPTER IV

PRESERVATION AND MANAGEMENT

Partridge ground, good and bad — Keepers and their work
— The various systems of modern preservation . 80

ix

X PARTRIDGES

CHAPTER V

BY MANY HANDS

A series of notes from many estates — Summarizing present-
day methods under varying conditions — With results,
opinions, and suggestions . . . Page 132

CHAPTER VI

VERMIN

What the real enemies of game are, and how they should
be dealt with — What animals and birds are unjustly
included in the list of proscription . . . 177

CHAPTER Vn

SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE

On partridge-shooting generally — Guns, cartridges, men,
and dogs — Shooting over dogs — Walking in line 208

CHAPTER Vm

PARTRIDGE - DRIVING

The broad rules which govern successful driving — The
difficulties which arise in their application, and how
they can be overcome — Beaters, flankers, and guns,
their right disposition and duties — The cost of
driving 239

CHAPTER IX

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY . . 290

CHAPTER X

STATISTICAL

Some records in Britain — Partridges abroad — Austria,
Hungary, and Belgium ..... 808

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

1. 'A Fatal Mistake'— A Covey flying out

to Sea ..... Frontispiece

2. Partridge and Young . . . . \Q

3. French Partridge . . . . . 33

4. ^Jugging' 48

5. Partridges on Wing . ... 65

6. (1) Good Nesting Ground; (2) Bad Nest-

ing Ground ..... 80

7. A Time-honoured Custom — Partridge and

Pheasant using same Nest . . .129

8. ^ Ware Chase' 144

9. ^Vermin' . . . . . .177

10. ^ Their worst Enemy' — Hen-house and

Poultry on Stubble Field . . .192

11. (1) The Right Shot; (2) The Wrong

Shot 209

12. ^Towered' ...... 224

13. Retriever on Wounded Bird . . .241

xi

xii PARTRIDGES

FACING PAGE

1 4. The Last Drive of the Season . . . 256

15. * The Valley of Death' . . . . 27S

16. ' Partridge Country ' .... 288

IN BLACK AND WHITE

Eight diagrams in the text.

PARTRIDGES AND
PARTRIDGE MANORS

CHAPTER I

IN DEFENCE OF THE PARTRIDGE

The case for game preservers — Interests of sport and
agriculture in this case mutual — Economic value of
sport to rural communities — A plea for a right
understanding.

** Land by the square mile is thrown away
in profligate extravagance upon stags and
pheasants and partridges, and is doled out
with miserly greed by the foot for the
habitations of men, women and children."
This is not a statement of fact — far
from it — it is merely a quotation from the
famous pulpit speech of the Chancellor of
the Exchequer in the year of grace 1910,
a speech which the Rev. J. Campbell

2 PARTRIDGES

modestly opined was destined to live for
ever.

While this is no place to embark on
the stormy waters of political discussion,
at the same time it would be wrong to
pass by unchallenged the many rash and
ill-considered utterances to which we are
now being treated, of which the above
may serve as a sample, — utterances which
ring only too plausibly in the ears of
thousands who, having no shadow of
knowledge about the subject, accept as
gospel all they are told, and thus come
to regard all game and game-preserving
in this country through a false and dis-
torted medium.

It is not the sayings themselves that
do the mischief; when they come from
the irresponsible tub-thumper in the park
we may well afford to forgive him his
ignorance, and leave him to battle the air
in peace, knowing that his words are dead
as soon as spoken ; when, however, they
fall from the lips of a responsible Minister
of the Crown, with all the dignity of his

THEIR DEFENCE 3

high office to lend them weight and
ensure their wide circulation and ready
acceptance, it is indeed time for some of
us, who have the best interests of sport at
heart, to bestir ourselves and make our
voices heard in defence of what we hold
to be a fair and legitimate recreation.

With stags and pheasants we have not
here to deal, but in so far as our little
friend the partridge is concerned in the
sweeping condemnation above quoted, we
can with confidence give the lie direct to
such an absurd proposition.

One may even say, without any exag-
geration, that unless the square miles, at
which the finger of righteous wrath was
pointed, are inhabited by numbers of men,
women and children, well disposed to
those who preserve and shoot over the
ground, you may throw your land away
in such profligate extravagance as you
will, but you will seek in vain to make a
good partridge-shooting.

For it is an axiom that partridges
* follow the plough,' and it is exactly on

4 PARTRIDGES

those lands where farming most thrives,
where the largest number of farm hands
are engaged in cultivating the land, and
where a considerate and conscientious
landowner lives on the best of terms with
tenant and labourer alike, that partridges
do best, and it is there that the big totals
at which our social reformers hold up
their hands in horror, are obtained, not at
the expense, but actually with the con-
nivance and approval of the entire rural
community.

The countryman, indeed, is not likely
to be taken in by all the nonsense which
is now talked about sport as part of the
crusade against the amusements of the
privileged classes. He knows well enough
that partridges do no damage to farmers ;
that the whole neighbourhood benefits
directly by the presence of the shooting
tenant who spends his autumn in their
midst; and that good watching by the
gamekeepers saves many a poultry roost
from the depredations of the local poachers,
and farms from the dangers of gates left

THEIR DEFENCE 5

open and straying stock, for these gentry
do not bear the character of being over-
considerate of others, such time as they
are pursuing their nocturnal vocation.

But, unfortunately at least in this
respect, it is the townsman who has the
predominant voice in the management of
affairs in this country ; he is being taught
to be severely critical of the pleasures of
the rich, and, among others, the man with
the dog and the gun is constantly held up
to him in an utterly false and untrue light.

Alike on ethical and economic grounds
we would meet our detractors. While
we do not seek to defend the man who,
with means admitting of continued leisure,
devotes the best of his life and energies to
the pursuit of sport, we hold that he is in
a negligible minority in this country, and
that it is most unfair to take him as
typical of a class, for he is simply the
waster who is found in every walk of life,
and by no means the normal example.
Certainly in partridge-shooting it would
be safe to say that ninety out of every

6 PARTRIDGES

hundred who follow this sport are deserv-
ing members of the community, enjoying
well-earned holidays in a peculiarly harm-
less fashion.

** Your partridges and your pheasants,"
cries the Socialist and his like, ** Nature's
produce, the rightful property of the
people, and only withheld by the mon-
strous injustice of the game laws, framed
only to suit the convenience of a privileged
class." Neither he nor his hearers care to
know that the landowner or lessee pays,
by the time he has shot them, something
like £l a brace for this public property,
and that were game allowed to fend for
itself with no protection against its legion
foes, winged, biped, and four-footed, there
would very shortly be no game left in the
country for any one.

Vindictive legislation could easily stop
the present class of sportsmen from enjoy-
ing their shooting, but such a short-sighted
measure would defeat its own ends, which
would be, presumably, the good of the
many. Sport would by no means be thus

THEIR DEFENCE 7

provided for the million, for sport would
cease to exist. Abolish the game laws,
and game in this country would be
abolished by the same act. If we con-
sider how many are dependent for their
livelihood on partridge - shooting, how
many more derive profitable employment
therefrom, a welcome aid to their narrow
means, how largely all trades in a country
district depend on the money that cir-
culates, directly or indirectly, through the
shooting, and finally what a valuable
source of food supply our shootings are —
(does not France spend a million annually
on imported game ?) — we realize how
strong a case we have, and one which,
rightly understood, should make the most
ardent reformer chary of interfering with
so valuable a national asset, so important
a factor in our rural economy.

The question seems simple enough ;
so long as human nature remains what
it is, some folk will work with their
brains instead of their hands, and make
money at the expense of those who find

8 PARTRIDGES

in manual labour the only profitable ex-
pression of their energy. The work of
the head being in its nature sedentary,
such folk will also desire to spend the
money they have earned in outdoor
pursuits, in the interests of their work, if
for no better reason. Some of these will
always hanker after the joys of partridge-
shooting, and if they cannot get it in this
country, which heaven forfend, they will
betake themselves to Hungary, Belgium
or Germany for their days of leisure.

It must surely be better for the country
that the money earned here should be
spent at home, to the betterment of
the very class that all are agreed most
want encouragement — the agricultural
population.

And if any think that this is an ex-
aggerated estimate of the dependence of
the general prosperity in a country district
on the sport it affords, let him go to the
West of Ireland and study the conditions
prevailing there. He will find that,
where there is hunting, the district may

THEIR DEFENCE 9

be poor, but there will always be a
certain amount of money circulating, and
consequently little real distress when
compared with the districts where there
are no hounds and consequently no sport,
game-preservation being impossible and
game naturally almost extinct. What
he will notice chiefly then is the absolute
stagnation and scarcity of money, trade at
a standstill, and universal poverty ; and let
us hope that he will profit by this object
lesson, and talk less at the next election
about popular rights and the game laws.

Meantime, it is well to ask, though
difficult to answer, what security of
tenure our game laws have in the near
future. They have been openly attacked
on hundreds of Radical platforms in
the plethora of General Elections from
which we have suffered of late, often with
the silent consent of the Radical candi-
date, himself not uncommonly a game-
preserver on a large scale in some other
county, — an anomaly which we do not
seek to explain.

10 PARTRIDGES

Fifteen years ago Mr. C. Stuart
Wortley was able to write that "the
game laws stand on safer ground than
they have ever done in the history of
England."

Could he say the same to-day ? Sport,
which must be the luxury of the few,
is siieh an easy subject of attack, pro-
vided only that your audience be ignorant
enough. Attack, however unjust, when
virulent and oft-repeated, undoubtedly
will have effects, especially when the de-
fence is silent ; and the difficulty of a
right understanding lies not a little in
a certain slackness noticeable among
those most interested. It is quite com-
mon to hear it said in the smoking-room
— " Let's have a good shoot now ; who
knows whether there will be any shooting
in ten years' time." This deplorable
attitude of laisser-faire, this philosophical
pessimism, cannot be too strongly con-
temned.

We game-preservers must realize that
though the arguments of our detractors

THEIR DEFENCE 11

seem to us trivial and absurd, and
scarcely worthy of contradiction, yet the
masses do not share our special know-
ledge of the subject, and it is for us to
enlighten their ignorance, dispel the
fallacies before they take root, and lead
them to a better understanding. It is
neither right nor in any way expedient
to obscure the issue, and evade the
question of game-preserving on public
platforms.

Rightly handled, our case is eminently
a presentable one ; lay it clearly before
the people whenever the chance offers,
and show how it rests on a firm base —
the general welfare of the country. Do
not talk overmuch about the rights of
property ; however strongly you may
believe in them yourself, still you cannot
expect them to appeal to those who only
want a right to your property, nor in-
deed to the mass of the people, to whom
property is but a name. You will not
get them to admit the sanctity of human
institutions, but on broader grounds they

12 PARTRIDGES

will listen to your pleading, and your
voice will not have been raised in vain.
For surely we all share a belief in the
reasonable nature of our fellow-country-
men ; could they but understand some of
the simplest facts about game-preserving,
we may rest assured that they would
listen with less patience to all the rant
and cant, which, uncontradicted, is liable
to work so much harm.

I have not touched at all on the
pleasures of partridge-shooting, on the
immense amount of enjoyment which
it provides, for here I should be no im-
partial critic, and no eulogy, however
eloquent, could be expected to influence
the judgment of those who have never
had the good fortune to enjoy this or
any other form of sport.

Further, this is a utilitarian age in
which we find ourselves. Matters are
weighed in the balance of material good
to the nation, and judged accordingly.
All that we game-preservers ask for is
that the scales should be held true, the

THEIR DEFENCE 13

measures fairly balanced, and then we
need have little fear of the verdict.

Let, then, those who profess to love
the people more than we do — and cer-
tainly do express their affection more
often and volubly — before they deal with
the question of sport, consider the points
in favour of partridge-shooting, the most
universal and popular form of sport in
this country. For their benefit let us
summarize the arguments in favour of
our pastime, viewed in the most material-
istic spirit we can compass.

Partridge - shooting is a valuable by-
product of successful agriculture, to the
operations of which it is in no sense
inimical.

It alone induces men with money to
pass their autumns in remote country
districts, where their presence stimulates
the local trade, and puts much -needed
money in circulation.

It permanently supports a numerous
class, the gamekeepers of Britain, who
preserve those virile qualities so necessary

14 PARTRIDGES

to the well-being of a nation, besides offer-
ing to many thousands of poor people the
chance of adding a few shillings to their
narrow means.

Stripped of all the qualities which en-
dear him to us, the partridge may still be
regarded as a small machine, which turns
noxious weeds and useless insects into a
valuable food for humans.

One might add that partridge-shooting
is a wholesome and manly recreation,
teaching city dwellers something of the
pleasures of an open-air life, and stimulat-
ing an interest in natural history.

If the game laws were rescinded,
thousands of local tradesmen, who depend
largely on the custom of the * big house,*
would be ruined ; tens of thousands of
gamekeepers, gunmakers, cartridge-factory
hands, and the like would be thrown out
of employment, and in return you would
have established the principle, futile in
conception and barren in results, that the
land and all that on it is belongs to the
people.

THEIR DEFENCE 15

Social reformers of to-day seem only
too apt to attack existing institutions
which seem to minister to the pleasures
of the few, without pausing to consider
on what basis they rest, and how far they
are conducive to the welfare of the
community. Fair play all round has
from time immemorial been the boasted
characteristic of our race, and if people
would only try to approach such a subject
as this with a comparatively open mind,
listen to what both sides have to say on
the question, and then work the matter
out to a reasoned conclusion, they would
surely be led to better ways of thinking.

On the other side it cannot be too
strongly impressed on sportsmen that
their sport is a luxury, which they enjoy
through the toleration of the community,
and that their responsibilities are not at
an end when they have paid the rent of
the shooting and taken out a game license.

Their attitude towards the dwellers on
the land they shoot over cannot be too
considerate and thoughtful. Here, for

16 PARTRIDGES

once, duty and self-interest walk hand in
hand ; to make the lives of those around
you a little brighter for your presence is
not only right, but, on a partridge-shooting,
is like bread cast upon the waters and
brings a sure reward.

By having every man on your shooting
a friend, you will best answer your de-
tractors, strengthen your own position,
and silence the voice of adverse criticism.

pAUTUIDf.E AND YoUNG.

CHAPTER II

NATURAL HISTORY

Distribution and life-history of the partridge — Red-legged
partridges — Foreign varieties suitable for introduction
— Cookery of the partridge.

The common partridge, known indiffer-
ently to scientists as Perdix Perdioo or
Perdioc cinerea, and more familiarly to
sportsmen as * the little brown bird/ is a
member of a large family, no fewer than
152 species of partridges and their affinities
being recognized by ornithologists.

Besides our own indigenous bird, but
one other species is resident in the British
Isles, the red-legged partridge [Caccabis
7nifa), which hails from the extreme
south-west parts of Europe, and was first
introduced into England in the reign of
Charles II.

X7 2

18 PARTRIDGES

While we thus have in this country a
representative of each of the two main
branches of the family, tetraonine and
galline (the latter comprising all the
numerous species of red-legged partridges,
distinguishable by the strong, blunt spurs of
the cocks), it is still somewhat surprising,
considering the almost infinite variety of
pheasants that flourish in our midst, to note
that no other kinds of partridges have been
successfully established.

Mr. Walter Rothschild, one of the first
authorities on this branch of ornithology,
has given a list of over twenty varieties
which he considers well adapted to hold
their own in our somewhat uncertain
climate.

Especially does he recommend the
Lerwa partridge, a handsome bird with
chestnut-red and grey plumage, a native
of the high ranges of the Himalayas.
Strong on the wing and as large as a
grouse, this Indian species might be a
very desirable acquisition on high and
broken ground.

NATURAL HISTORY 19

Then there are the snow partridges or
snow cocks ( Tetraogallus), of which each
considerable range of mountains in Asia
seems to have a distinct species. The
two varieties which Mr. Rothschild deems
most suitable for introduction hail from
the high tops of the Caucasus and the
Himalayas respectively. They are at once
the shyest and wildest, and the finest of
the partridge race, being as large as a
hen capercailzie. Despite their size, they
could not be mistaken for anything but
a real partridge, and look a true and noble
game bird in their beautiful plumage of
silvery-grey and white, the naked patch
behind the eye making a splash of orange
vermiHon, which contrasts pleasingly with
the more sober and delicate tones of the
general colour scheme.

While we would gladly welcome these
fine mountain-dwellers as a splendid addi-
tion to our native fauna — and it would
indeed lend a new interest to the scenery
if one might look to flush the mighty
snow cock among the barren solitudes of

20 PARTRIDGES

the high tops — yet it is not easy whole-
heartedly to subscribe to Mr. Rothschild's
dictum, that it is certain that they would
do admirably on our north country fells
and Scots mountains. One scents diffi-
culties in the path ; though, so far as the
food supply is concerned, they would
probably thrive on the same scanty fare
of roots, berries, grass, and moss that
keeps the ptarmigan so plump and lusty,
yet surely the high mountain sides of
Asia must have a climate far drier and
colder than our own, and one cannot but
doubt that, unless expense were no object,
the cost of the experiment might be out
of all proportion to its results.

Continuous wet and rain are far the
most trying conditions to all wild life,
and to a new-comer, unacquainted with
all the clever devices which the natives
employ to keep themselves dry, might
well prove fatal at the outset.

Still, I have seen Crested Cranes from
the sun-baked plains of Kordofan thriv-
ing among the damps and mists of the

NATURAL HISTORY 21

west coast of Scotland, nor would I
seek for an instant to discourage any one
from the attempt ; only let him * gang
warily,' and, despite what he may find
in books on the subject, by no means
consider success in his praiseworthy
efforts assured from the start.

There is one partridge from Western
Mongolia (P. bai^bata or dailrica), whom
it would be quite reasonable to assume
would do well with us, accustomed as
he is to a cold, wet climate and a heavy
soil. He is not unlike our own grey
partridge in general appearance, save for
the superior attractions of a black horse-
shoe on a golden-bufF breast, and the
remarkable addition to the ordinary garb
of a partridge in the form of well-grown
ginger whiskers, or to speak more scientific-
ally yet perhaps less descriptively, of
certain elongated lanceolate feathers on
the sides of the throat. He would be
an attractive novelty in a countryside,
and perchance one's eye might be caught
by his flowing whiskers as he topped the

22 PARTRIDGES

fence, giving us that extra six inches
forward that some of us want so badly.

The partridge which is probably the
best for introduction to this country is
not, strictly speaking, a partridge at all ;
but as he is at least a cousin of the grey
partridges, and the members of his race
{Bonasa) are commonly and indiscrimin-
ately, if erroneously, called partridges,
pheasants and chickens by sportsmen, it
may not be altogether amiss, after due
apology for his presence, to accord him
a passing mention in these pages.

The small hazel hen of the Carpathians
{Bonasa sylvestris) is akin to the Ruffed
Grouse, Sage Cock, and Spruce partridges
of North America. He is a handsome
fellow with grey plumage, blended with
every shade of red and brown ; the back
and wings have crescent - shaped black
markings edged with white, the throat is
black, surrounded by a white line, while
the feathered legs betray his affinity to
the grouse. The flight is noisy, rapid,
but not protracted, a covey when flushed

NATURAL HISTORY 23

soon settling again in the trees, where
they remain motionless, and where only
a trained and quick eye can pick them
up.

Their note is a low melancholy whistle,
and they are easily called by means of
a peculiar instrument, extensively used
in Roumania, where they abound, and
so constructed that the performer can
imitate at will the call of either cock or
hen to attract members of the opposite
sex. Apart from the sport he affords,
the hazel hen has a strong recommenda-
tion to our favour, for he is quite the
best bird in the world to eat, with flesh
white in colour, and of a peculiar and
eminently palatable flavour.

Hazel hens find their natural home
among rough and dense forests on hill-
sides of no great altitude ; their range
extends northwards through Scandinavia,
southwards as far as China and Japan,
while the Ardennes form their western
limit in Europe.

Their food consists of the shoots and

24 PARTRIDGES

buds of birch and hazel, berries and other
fruits, worms, insects and their larvse.

There seems no reasonable cause why
they should not thrive and multiply with
us, if once introduced ; and as their
natural haunts in this country are now
only tenanted by the occasional caper-
cailzie, they would add greatly to the
attractions of a type of country which
is now practically gameless. This bird
deserves especial notice at this present
time, when the low estate of our wood-
lands and the advantages of growing our
own timber have become questions of
national interest, and every year we may
expect to see more and more waste and
unproductive hill land turned into forest
and woodland.

Several other members of the partridge
family have from time to time been given
a trial in this country, but never with
more than a partial success. Such incon-
clusive results do not, however, warrant
the assumption that none of the strangers
are likely to do well with us, for it must

NATURAL HISTORY 25

be borne in mind that the initial attempts
to introduce a new species have generally
ended in failure, and that the eventual
success has usually been gained by per-
sistence in face of repeated disappoint-
ments.

It is only a hundred years since Yarrell,
the best authority on birds of his day,
wrote bewailing the approaching ex-
tinction of the Chinese pheasant (P.
torquatus), then a recent and much-
admired introduction ; yet, after all, the
new-comer proved more than capable of
holding his own, ousting the old Indian
pheasant wherever they met, till now not
one in ten thousand of our pheasants but
bears marked trace of ring-necked blood.

The Duchess of Bedford has kindly
furnished me with the following notes
on the various foreign partridges which
have been turned out experimentally in
the park at Woburn Abbey : — ** We
once turned out some Black partridges
{Fi^ancolinus vulgaris — a native of Pales-
tine and Asia Minor), but they disappeared.

26 PARTRIDGES

We have a large number of Chukor
{Caccabis chukor — an Indian species
akin to our red-legged partridge), which
do fairly well and would do better if
they did not fight so desperately in the
spring, even to the death. They do not
appear to stray at all, and 1 only know
of one ever having been shot outside the
park.

** We have also turned out a good many
Bamboo partridges (Bambtisicola Fytchii
— from N.E. India) ; these have bred
with us and there are always a few
about, but they cannot be said to do
very well. They seem to disappear, as
one sees them in summer with strong,
well-grown broods, and yet they do not
increase.

** One was shot near Bedford, twelve
miles away, a few years ago, and a large
drawing of it by Frohawk appeared in the
Field as a * hybrid pheasant and partridge,'
Mr. Tegetmeier writing a long article
upon the bird I "

The Red-legged or French partridge

NATURAL HISTORY 27

is now firmly established in our eastern
and southern countries, though still a
stranger in the north and west. In
Scotland he is unknown, though recently
some have been turned down in the
sandy soil of Aberdeen, where they would
seem likely to thrive and multiply.

First brought over to this country
about the middle of the seventeenth
century and enlarged in Windsor Forest,
by far the largest influx coincided with
the rush of other emigi^es from France,
such time as the shadow of the guillotine
lay dark on that sunny land. Most of the
new-comers were turned out on Norfolk
and Suffolk estates, spreading thence
through the neighbouring counties.

Commonly known as Frenchmen, the
name seems singularly apposite, for they
have many of the qualities and character-
istics we are wont to attribute to the
French nation. They are gay in appear-
ance, and their showy plumage of olive-
brown back, blue-grey and rufous brown
breast, black and cream throat, and flanks

28 PARTRIDGES

boldly barred with black, pale buff, and
intense red, forms a striking tout ensemble
which quite throws into the shade the
quiet, unostentatious dress of our native
bird.

They seem fond of publicity, and are
always en evidence, strutting about in the
middle of the open fields, when the grey
partridges have sought privacy in the
seclusion of some quiet corner.

They are of a restless and nervous
disposition, have marked and unaccount-
able dislikes for certain fields, and effectu-
ally disappoint the theorist, who would
base on their actions in the past any
guidance as to their probable behaviour
in the future.

Their domestic arrangements seem
strange in our eyes. While our English
partridge is the most considerate and
consistent of mothers, laying, sitting and
hatching with a business-like punctuality,
and generally conducting the affairs of
her household with a commendable, if
humdrum, regularity, so that under given

NATURAL HISTORY 29

conditions you may with tolerable cer-
tainty forecast the progress of events,
with the French partridges it is quite
otherwise. In the first instance, they
may travel miles before they happen on
a nesting-place which suits their wayward
taste ; then they will lay their eggs at
quite uncertain intervals of time, and
desert the nest at any moment for no
accountable reason. Even when sitting,
they will suddenly leave eggs on the
verge of hatching, stay away for days
together, and unexpectedly come back
to hatch off a brood, just when the nest
has been written down as a failure.

While they have earned a bad reputa-
tion as mothers, they will often astonish
the world in general by successfully bring-
ing up a large family in a happy-go-
lucky sort of way. For some reason
they seem to suffer less from wet seasons
than English birds, and often do fairly
well when all the chances seem against
them.

Finally, just as was the case with our

30 PARTRIDGES

neighbours across the Channel, we hated
and persecuted them so long as we mis-
understood them ; but now, happily, in
the partridge world as elsewhere, a better
understanding prevails, an entente cordiale
has been established, and it is no longer
deemed impossible for French and English
neighbours to live together in amity.

Before the introduction of driving,
French partridges were very unpopular.
They have a marked proclivity for
running, and were equally annoying to
sportsmen, as detrimental to the manners
of young pointers, in dogging days.
They were also accused of driving away
English birds from their nests, though
under modern conditions this is certainly
not the case, the grey partridges generally
coming off best when it comes to fisti-
cuffs. Probably the truth was that
owing to the difficulty of getting up on
them when walking, many French par-
tridges survived to a ripe old age, and
the race suffered from the misdeeds of
individuals, any barren or bachelor old

NATURAL HISTORY 31

partridge being equally mischievous in
the spring.

They suffered and survived severe
persecution ; keepers trampled on their
nests, and generally treated them as
vermin ; now, however, they have been
restored to favour, their value on driving
ground admitted, and on most estates,
where they exist, they are encouraged
and preserved.

Apart from the peculiar propensities
above mentioned, the life-habits of the
red-leg are very similar to those of the
common partridge. They seem to prefer
waste lands, commons, or heath in the
vicinity of cultivation ; object to grass
lands even more strongly than their
cousins, yet seem to do well on heavy
clay sorl where the English bird fails.
They would always rather trust to their
legs than their wings for escape from
danger, in which event the covey breaks
up, each bird fending for himself. Their
flight, when they do get up, is rapid and
short ; they hardly ever swerve, but fly

32 PARTRIDGES

straight from point to point. The exist-
ence of any hybrid between the two
species has yet to be proved.

The range of the common partridge is
wide ; draw a line on the map from
Brussels to Venice ; roughly speaking,
the country east of this line is its natural
habitat, stretching northwards through
Scandinavia almost up to the Arctic
Circle, and ranging southwards as far as
the Caucasus Mountains, and eastwards
into Northern Persia and Central Asia
up to the Altai Mountains, east of which
range its place is taken by a smaller but
closely allied species.

In this country the partridge is gener-
ally distributed through every district
where the land is cultivated and game
preserved. The application of modern
scientific methods to the care and pre-
servation of partridges has gone far to
modify their natural distribution.

The grey partridge with us has less
traits of the migrant than perhaps any
other of our native birds. Living in an

I'REXCH Partridge.

NATURAL HISTORY 33

equable climate, with a food-supply more
or less assured throughout the year, he
has become a real stay-at-home bird, and
rarely cares to wander beyond the con-
fines of his native farm. On the Con-
tinent, however, where they are subjected
to more violent climatic changes, par-
tridges are of a more migratory habit,
and shift their quarters freely, travelling
far afield in search of food and shelter.

Formerly the light soils of the eastern
counties of England were alone considered
capable of supporting great numbers of
partridges, as indeed they were capable
of doing without any help from the hand
of man, beyond the casual attentions of
the old - fashioned gamekeeper. Now,
however, it has been proved beyond all
question that the heavier lands of Hamp-
shire, Notts, Yorkshire, and half-a-dozen
other counties can, under the modern
methods of higher preservation, carry as
heavy and, in some cases, even a heavier
head of partridges than those more
naturally congenial to game.

34 PARTRIDGES

The sober buff-brown and grey livery
of our most familiar game bird is too
well known among all country-dwellers
to demand any detailed description. It
was for long a popular and almost uni-
versal belief that the chestnut horse-shoe
on the breast was the distinguishing
mark of the cock partridge. This error
was duly set forth as a fact in the early
text-books on ornithology, and as solemnly
repeated in each succeeding work on
the subject, though a very superficial
acquaintance with anatomy and five
minutes' examination of some dead birds
would have served to put it right at any
time.

But when writers are content to
accept their facts at second hand, without
any attempt to verify their accuracy,
mistakes once made are apt to linger
long and die hard. Thus it was only of
recent years that it has been shown that
the horse-shoe is not uncommonly absent
in the cock, and almost invariably present
among hens of the first year ; at the same

NATURAL HISTORY 35

time the true external marks of sexual
difference were pointed out and finally
settled/

Thus, while the sexes are alike in
general appearance, and it is impossible
to distinguish with any certainty between
cock and hen when on the wing, there
are certain constant and trustworthy
distinctions which may be easily recog-
nized on closer view, even among young
birds at the opening of the shooting
season. These marks of difference may
thus be shortly summarized : —

(1) Median and lesser wing coverts (the smaller
wing feathers towards the shoulder, covering the
base of the double row of flight feathers or
quills).

(rt) In the male. (i) In the female.

Ground colour dark, Ground colour black, wzVA

blotched on the inner tivo or three wide-set biiff

web with chestnut ; stripe cross bars, in addition to

of buff down each shaft, buff" shaft stripe.
but no cross bars.

^ Letters of Mr. Ogilvie Grant of the British Museum,
published in the Field, November 21, 1891, and April 9,
1892.

36 PARTRIDGES

(2) Feathers of neck.

(a) In the male. {!)) In the female.

Ground colour, greyish Ground colour, olive

brown to slate ; fine brown bars of black

irregular bars of black; broader and more distinct;

710 shaft stripe. shaft stnpe of pale buff.

(3) Crown of head.

(rt) In the male. {h) In the female.

Ground colour chestnut Ground colour chestnut
brown ; small shaft stripes brown ; larger shaft stripes
of same colour. of pale buff.

Birds of the year may be distinguished
till November by the yellowish colour of
their legs and feet ; towards the close of
the year this is replaced by the slaty blue
of the adult, the under part of the feet
being the last to turn. A more certain
distinction is the shape of the first flight
feather of the wing, of which the end is
pointed in a young bird, and rounded in
birds which have undergone their second
autumn moult.

Partridges from different districts vary
somewhat in appearance ; the finest speci-
mens, alike in bulk and riclmess of colora-

NATURAL HISTORY 37

tion (if one may thus speak of so modest
and Quaker-like a habit), come from light
and sandy soils. In some mstances the
horse-shoe is nearly jet black, while in
most old hens the horse-shoe becomes
speckled chestnut and white, or even
pure white.

Varieties in which the predominant
hue is light fawn, pale buff, pied or pure
white, are from time to time recorded
from all parts of the country, but instances
of true albinism or melanism are few and
far between.

There is one type of variation from
the normal so constant in its recurrence
as to have at one time been granted the
dignity of being classified as a separate
species, under the name of Perdix
viontaiid. This honour has now been
justly rescinded, for the question is simply
one of a superfluity of red-colouring pig-
ment in the individual, though probably
to some extent a hereditary tendency, and
doubtless one largely influenced by food.

This seems to be a common type in

38 PARTRIDGES

the mountains of Lorraine, and though
of less frequent occurrence in this country,
yet scattered instances occur in every
district where partridges are abundant,
nor is it by any means confined to
mountain and moorland, as some would
suppose. The uniform characteristic of
this variety is a more or less pronounced
tendency to a rich chestnut-brown or
rusty red colour which suffuses the
natural plumage in varying degree, the
most strongly marked specimens showing
an almost complete replica of the colora-
tion of a red grouse.

The hill partridge is another well-
known, though unscientific, variety : he
has learnt to be independent of the
farmer, and is said only to mate with
his own race. Hill partridges are smaller
and darker in colour than the ordinary
partridge, and, until the winter sets in,
and they are hard put to it to eke out
a livelihood, are generally found to be
plump, well-conditioned, and of fine, wild
flavour on the table.

NATURAL HISTORY 39

Though the scanty food-supply and
manifold hardships incident to life among
the bleak surroundings which they have
chosen for their home prevent their ever
increasing to anything like the numbers
of their more favoured brethren of the
arable lands, still they manage to hold
their own in the struggle for existence,
and on our northern fells, the bare heaths
of Surrey, and the borders of most moor-
lands there are always to be found a few
coveys of these hardy stragglers. Seasoned
perhaps by adversity, they seem to suffer
less from the vagaries of our climate than
the dwellers in the plains, and year in and
year out little difference is to be noticed
in their numbers.

The partridge chick, a tiny morsel of
greyish brown down, with black mark-
ings on the head and stripes down the
back, usually comes into the world some
time between the middle of June and the
first weeks of July, the date of hatching
being locally very constant, but varying
in different districts, southern hatching

40 PARTRIDGES

earlier than eastern, and northern a
week or so later.

For the first fortnight of their life, the
dozen chicks which may constitute the
covey have but a slender hold on existence.
A sudden thunderstorm, or a succession
of those chill and sunless days and
dropping skies which the doleful experi-
ences of recent years almost lead one to
expect as the normal accompaniment of
an English midsummer, means a sad tale
of infantile mortality among the rising
generation of partridges.

As soon as the chicks have dried after
quitting the egg, the hen, with the cock
in close attendance, leads them away to
the nearest patch of cover. Apart from
the dangers of inclement weather, and the
ever-present dread of attack by some
marauder, furred or feathered, their welfare
is now influenced chiefly by the available
supply of insect life, on which they depend
entirely for their food till they are at least
a month old.

Thus all extremes of weather at hatch-

NATURAL HISTORY 41

ing time are to be deplored, for while in
wet and cold seasons, soaking grass,
chilled and sodden lands, with undue
prevalence of what golfers term * casual
water,' will claim their victims by the
thousand, a time of protracted drought
will equally spell disaster, though after
a different fashion.

Heavy lands then open in cracks and
fissures, pitfalls for the unwary innocents ;
cover from foes is scanty, and the chances
of an epidemic of gapes, when the first
rain comes, are much increased. These,
however, are but minor evils ; the main
trouble then is a universal dearth of insect
life, and, deprived of their natural susten-
ance, young partridges will continue to
waste and die till well on in August.

Warm weather with light showers is
what we all long to see at hatching time ;
the warmth to ensure a favourable hatch,
and the showers to ensure a sufficient
swarm of the smaller forms of life.

When all goes w^ell, ants and ants' eggs,
aphides, and all the unconsidered trifles

42 PARTRIDGES

of the insect world are assiduously sought
for and devoured, the chicks soon learning
to follow the clucking call of the hen in
their humble forays, and to answer with
a little chirp of their own, so feeble as to
be almost imperceptible to our ruder ears.

On these expeditions the cock generally
looks after the safety of the party, running
on a few yards ahead, and giving a low
note of encouragement when he is satisfied
that all is well around and above them.

The young birds grow apace, can fly
when only a few days old and little bigger
than sparrows, and should no casualties
have thinned their numbers have, after a
week, grown too big for the hen to cover
all at once, some then being entrusted to
the sheltering wing of the cock.

Both cock and hen are assiduous and
unremitting in the care and attention they
give to their family. In the face of
danger they will display a singular devo-
tion to duty. Naturally timid in disposi-
tion, when with their young they develop
a rare courage, and besides the time-

NATURAL HISTORY 43

honoured device of simulating a broken
wing to draw away the unwelcome in-
truder, a stratagem so common in the bird
world, they will fearlessly attack such
formidable enemies as dogs and crows.
A west country parson was recently
driving along one of the winding lanes of
Devonshire, and came suddenly on a
brood of young partridges in the middle
of the road. As he pulled up to avoid
running over them, one old bird flew
straight up at the pony's nose, and per-
sisted in furious attacks until the other
parent had led the whole brood over the
bank into safety, when he quietly flew
over the hedge to join them.

As the corn ripens, the covey spends
most of the day among the growing crops,
not with a view to any injury of the grain,
which they rarely, if ever, meddle with
while growing, but finding a plentiful
harvest of their own anion 2f the wire-
worms and other noxious grubs and
insects, and the multitude of smaller
weeds which flourish among the corn.

44 PARTRIDGES

At first streak of dawn the family are
taken to dust themselves on the nearest
sandy bank or roadway, a practice of
which through life they are as fond as any
ancient Roman of his bath, and which
now helps to keep the young from wet
and chill until the sun is up to warm the
world. When the corn is led, they come
to the stubbles as soon as it is light, to
feed on the fallen grain, true perquisite of
the wild, all kinds of seeds and grasses,
spiders, slugs, beetles and such like. They
then retire for the day to such cover as is
available — turnips, clover, or waste land.
They are particularly fond of a small
aphis, which is found on the under side of
turnip leaves in autumn. Late in the
afternoon they seek the stubbles once
more for the evening meal, and at dusk
the covey, collecting with much conversa-
tion, betakes itself to roost or 'jug,'
generally on some open and rising ground,
sleeping bunched in a circle, with the
heads pointing outwards, to guard against
the approach of danger.

NATURAL HISTORY 45

At three months the young birds are
practically full-grown, and, undergoing
the autumn moult, begin closely to re-
semble the old birds in appearance.
When winter sets in, the diet of the
covey is limited by force of circum-
stances ; the ploughed stubbles afford
them some pickings, which, with weeds
from the hedgerows, grass, turnip leaves,
and, when they can get it, young clover,
are all they have to rely on. In times of
protracted frost they suffer in common
with all other wild vegetarians or insect-
feeders, only the carnivora then reaping an
easy and plentiful harvest.

Few birds feel the influence of coming
spring so early as the partridge ; a few
warm, sunny days late in January, and
the family which has lived together from
the nest begins to disintegrate. The
cocks, of which there are naturally a
slight preponderance, fight freely, but for
most part innocuously. So long as the
fine weather holds, pairing goes forward
apace, but a snap of cold reunites the

46 PARTRIDGES

family again, and it is generally not till
the end of February that the ties are
finally loosened, each pair setting up house
on their own.

During the early spring, partridges are
very fond of fallow and pasture, staying
in the open all day, and we see more of
our little friend then than at any other
time of the year.

The choice of a site for the nest seems
to be a very weighty matter ; a pair will
prospect for weeks before finally deciding,
and their eventual selection is often
governed by considerations which we
cannot even dimly apprehend. Any form
of roughness close to the open spaces
where they live, such as tussocks of
coarse grass, briars, bracken, whins, rough
hedgerows and the edges of young planta-
tions, are the favourite spots ; though in
these times of over-tidy farming many are
driven to nest in the open fields, where
the blades of the hay-cutter often bring
sudden destruction to mother and nest
alike. They have a strange predilection

NATURAL HISTORY 47

for roadsides and foot-paths, where the
nest is in constant danger from passing
boys and wandering dogs.

Some attribute this inconvenient habit
to a desire for grit, which can thus be
found quite handy to the nest ; but it
seems more probable that this strongly
marked tendency is rather due to the old
birds welcoming the proximity of an open
dry space where they can take their young
when hatched.

The nest is a circular scrape in the
bare earth, in which the drab-coloured
eggs are daily laid, till the full number of
anything between ten and twenty be
reached. Nests with larger numbers, as
many as thirty - five eggs having been
recorded, can only be set down to the
joint efforts of two hens laying in the one
nest. Pheasants are sad offenders in this
respect ; they constantly show a desire to
set up house with the partridge hens, laying
their eggs among the others, to the serious
detriment of the family arrangements.

Partridges rarely lay their first egg

48 PARTRIDGES

more than an hour or so before noon, each
subsequent egg being laid a little later in
the day.

The eggs as laid are covered carefully
with leaves and grass, which saves them
from late frosts, and most effectually con-
ceals the nest. When laying is finished,
the birds proceed to arrange the nest for
incubation, now placing the leaves and
grass under the eggs, which are then
neatly arranged in circles. During the
two days or so that they are thus engaged,
partridges are, for some reason, peculiarly
sensitive to any disturbance, and will
desert altogether if interfered with in any
way. The hen sits for three weeks, and
like others of the gallinaceous tribe is able
to secrete her natural scent while sitting,
which serves to protect her from her many
foes. This loss of scent is probably in
some measure due to the fact that the
feathers are all pressed close to the body
of the bird, for the scent returns to some
extent shortly before hatching, when the
hen ruffles out her feathers.

" Jugging."

NATURAL HISTORY 49

The cock takes no part in the actual
incubation, but remains in close attend-
ance on the hen while she is sitting.
When the hen indicates that the eggs are
due to hatch, the cock comes and sits close
alongside of the nest, waiting patiently
for the young birds to emerge ; he then
takes them under his wing, one by one,
as the hen hands them over to him.

Partridges, though generally a fairly
hardy and healthy race, suffer at times
from various diseases ; in a wet autumn
numbers die from inflammation of the
lungs, due to contact with the wet ground
when their breasts are almost denuded of
feathers ; enteritis and tuberculosis will at
times claim their toll of the race ; while in
districts where poultry-farming is largely
carried on terrible epidemics of gapes
occur at intervals, especially after a dry
summer.

When overcrowded, young partridges
are liable to a form of purulent oph-
thalmia, ending in total blindness or
death.

4

50 PARTRIDGES

Much has been heard of recent years
about a mysterious and hitherto unknown
disease, its exact nature undiagnosed,
which is said to have decimated the par-
tridges through wide districts in East
Anglia and the southern counties, and
which some would have us beUeve will
eventually lead to the extermination of
the race, if no measures of prevention be
adopted.

Poisoning by arsenical wheat dressings,
sickness induced by new-fangled chemical
manures and sheep dips, contagion from
the horde of Hungarians which have been
let loose among our native birds, and a
general deterioration of the partridge
race from what they were in the time of
our fathers, have been variously assigned
as t\ie fons et origo malorum.

But the fact has still to be proved,
before the causes thereof need be con-
sidered. For though it may be admitted
that occasional partridges have died from
arsenical poisoning, and that there has
been some wasting sickness where chemical

NATURAL HISTORY 51

manures have been freely used or Hun-
garians extensively turned out, there is
still no weight of evidence to warrant a
conclusion that this disease can be dis-
associated from, or indeed be regarded
as anything but the natural outcome of,
the unhappy succession of wet summers.
Where fine weather at hatching time is
the rule, the exceptional cold and rain
of the last three years have reduced the
stock of partridges to within a measurable
distance of vanishing point, and such
districts alone constitute the supposed
* infected area ' ; in harsher, northern
climates, where birds are better able to
withstand unfavourable weather, no word
is heard of unusual disease.

If in the years of plenty, which are
surely due, partridges continue to die all
the year round, the question will become
one of urgency ; but in the meantime
we can only wait and see, believing that
in two good seasons lies the surest remedy
for the decrease of partridges, and that
this evasive and nameless disease cannot

52 PARTRIDGES

be regarded as a normal factor in the
life of the partridge.

On heavy kinds partridges are much
troubled by the soil clogging on their
feet. A ball of clay is formed, which will
grow, in wet weather, till the unfortunate
bird can scarcely move, and is left by
the covey to pine and die. In some
cases this ball has been known to reach
a huge size, when compared to the pound
or so of the bird's own weight. Darwin
mentions having taken a ball weighing 6f
ounces from the foot of a partridge, and
succeeded in growing no less than eighty-
four plants from seeds contained in it.

It is not easy to determine what, for
the partridge, is the equivalent of the
threescore years and ten of man. Fifteen
to seventeen years have been assigned as
the limit, but whether this is near the
mark or not is open to doubt ; nor is this
question of longevity one which game-
keepers can afford to solve for themselves,
for on all preserved ground a partridge
ceases to be at all a desirable resident

NATURAL HISTORY 53

after his second year. Here the general
welfare of the race, and not the con-
venience of the individual, is alone to be
considered, and no partridge could be
allowed to reach anything approaching
his allotted span of years, whatever they
may be, without serious detriment to the
rest of the community. The ideal state
of affairs, from the game-preserver's point
of view, is that each pair of birds should
fulfil their parental duties but once, or
at most twice, and then, having achieved
the object of their existence, make their
exit, leaving it to their offspring to carry
on the race.

Thus, since this chapter has been de-
voted to the life-history of the partridge,
and his career traced through the various
stages of his existence, we may now, not
inappropriately, regard his life as having
reached its fitting termination, and con-
clude by following him to the scenes of
his last appearance — the kitchen and the
dining-room.

On the table, the partridge can well

54 PARTRIDGES

bear comparison witli any other game
bird. Gastronomically considered, a
plump young English partridge must be
conceded high place among the good things
of this world. But he must be young
and he must be English, for no amount
of hanging will make a real old bird
tender, while the Frenchman is a very
inferior article in this respect, lacking
the natural juices and delicate flavour of
our native bird.

Given young birds, well-conditioned
and properly hung, there is but one way
to use them to the best advantage, and
that the simplest. They should be roasted
on the spit in front of a fire made up
in such a manner as to produce more
flame than glowing embers, cooking them
not enough to make them dry, yet
sufficiently to avoid all appearance of
being underdone. The birds while being
roasted may be partly covered with a
thin slice of larding bacon ; this shields
the fillets of the bird from drying, while
the legs, which the heat takes much

NATURAL HISTORY 55

longer to penetrate than the other parts,
are cooking. But with good and sufficient
basting, the fillets may well be kept from
drying even without this precaution.

This is by far the most satisfactory
way, and does full justice to the bird.
The alternative of roasting in the oven
is very inferior, and should be avoided
whenever it is possible. In the closed
oven it is inevitable that steam should
collect on the bird, and this tends to
spoil the delicate flavour, which it is so
important to preserve. When circum-
stances over which they have no control
make it necessary for cooks to use the
oven, they should take special precautions
to neutralize the bad effects of the steam,
but where a closed range is in use, it only
costs a few shillings to add a bottle-jack
and roast the birds in the proper way.

Served at once, with due accompani-
ment of bread sauce, bread-crumbs, and
gravy made from the swilling of the drip-
ping pan, roast partridge makes a dish,
commonplace if you will, yet comparing

56 PARTRIDGES

more than favourably with the thousand-
and-one intricate recipes from the modern
chef's repertory, of which more anon.

Such birds as survive the ordeal of
the dinner-table should be eaten cold the
next day without any further culinary
attention. To deal with old birds satis-
factorily is a very different and difficult
question ; probably it is best to use them
only in the preparation of game stock or
forcemeats. When they must be used
for the table, they probably appear better
as yerdrioc aux chouoc than in any other
form ; a common and homely dish on
the Continent, though far rarer in this
country than its merits deserve. The
methods of preparing pei^diix auoc choux
are legion ; one simple and effective way
is as follows : —

Quarter the cabbage, parboil and cool
it. Defoliate the quarters ; suppress the
outside leaves and the midribs of the
remaining leaves ; season with salt and
pepper, and put the cabbage in a sauce-
pan garnished with slices of bacon, and

NATURAL HISTORY 57

containing one quartered carrot, one
onion stuck with a garlic clove, one
faggot, two-thirds pint of consomme, and
three tablespoonfuls of stock fat per 2
lbs. of cabbage. Cover the old partridges
with slices of bacon, lay them in the bed
of cabbage and then braise gently for
two to three hours.

There are exactly a thousand-and-one
other ways of cooking a partridge, but
with such material as good young English
birds to wprk on, any treatment but the
plainest can only tend towards spoiling a
good thing, reminding one of Browning's
lines, written, it is true, on a more
romantic theme — a pretty woman — yet
here apposite enough to excuse their being
put to baser uses : —

Thus the craftsman seeks to grace the rose,

Plucks a mould flower

For his gold flower,
Uses fine things that efface the rose.

In like fashion the many fine things
which a modern chef uses to grace the
partridge often result only in a triumph

58 PARTRIDGES

of culinary art, probably very unwhole-
some, and in which the partridge itself is
completely lost.

Most of these over-elaborated recipes
were either devised on the Continent,
where grey partridges are not always to
be had, to give savour to the comparatively
tasteless redleg, or else were invented in
response to the insensate and insatiate
demand for novelties to tickle the jaded
palate of a certain over- luxurious class of
modern society, the sort of people for
whom the best is not quite good enough,
a class with which let us hope that neither
you, my gentle reader, nor I have any-
thing in common.

One cunning concoction of this nature
may serve as a fair sample of the rest ;
and indeed this one is not without a
certain historic interest of its own. It
is thus given by the cordon bleu of the
Carlton : —

Perdrix a la mode d' Alcantara,
At the beginning of the campaign of

NATURAL HISTORY 59

1807 in Portugal, the library of the famous
Alcantara convent was pillaged by Junot's
soldiers, and its precious manuscripts used
in the making of cartridges. An officer
of the commissariat who was present
happened on an old book of recipes selected
by the monks, and among them the one
now under notice, which was applied only
to partridges.

It struck him as interesting, and after
trying it when he returned to France in
the following year, he gave it to the
Duchesse D'Abrantes, who preserved it
in her memoirs. It was perhaps, as
Monsieur L'Escoffier remarks in a pathetic
aside, the only good thing the French
derived from that unfortunate campaign.
Here is the simple little dish on which the
worthy monks, who among other things if
we remember aright were called upon to
renounce the flesh, used to regale them-
selves : —

Empty the partridges from the front ;
bone the breasts and stuff them with fine
duck's foies gras, mixed with quartered

60 PARTRIDGES

truffles, cooked in port wine. Marinade
the partridges for three days in port wine
and a litter of aromatics (chopped shallots,
rosemary, thyme, bay, and parsley), taking
care that the birds be well covered there-
with. This done, cook them en cassei^ole.
Reduce the port wine of the marinade ;
add to it a dozen medium-sized truffles ;
set the partridges on these truffles, and
heat for a further ten minutes.

To which our authority adds this note : —
This last part of the recipe may be advan-
tageously replaced by the a la Souvaroff
treatment — that is to say, having placed
the partridge and the truffles in a terrine,
sprinkle them with the reduced port
combined with slightly buttered game
glaze ; then hermetically seal down the
lid of the terrine, and complete the cook-
ing in the oven.

Junot and SouvarofF — there is un-
doubtedly a fine Napoleonic ring about this
preparation, but whether it be mere insular
prejudice or not, still I would as lief have
my partridges cooked in simpler guise.

CHAPTER III

HISTOmCAL

Early records of partridge-shooting — Great sportsmen
of the eighteenth century — Matches — England v.
Scotland in 1816, etc. — Methods of other days.

For some 3000 years, from the days of
Nineveh and Babylon, whose sculptured
stones bear figures of falconers with their
hawks on the wrist, down to our own
early Hanoverian times, hawking was the
one gentlemanly fashion of taking the
partridge. Ousted by the coming of the
*vile saltpetre,' haggards and eyasses,
sacres and sakerets, lannerets, tiercels,
falcons of the rock and falcons gentle,
with their lures, varvels, jesses and be-
wits, have all gone their way, and are
now to us only sounds without meaning,
though the intricate and comprehensive

61

62 PARTRIDGES

language of the sport was once an indis-
pensable part of the education of any one
who could pretend to gentle blood.

Now only our London * mews ' — or
' places where hawks are kept ' — and the
somewhat Gilbertian office of Hereditary
Grand Falconer of England remain to
remind us of the noble art of Falconry,
though there are still some twenty or
thirty country gentlemen in England
who keep and fly their own hawks. Of
the twenty kinds of falcons and hawks
which were commonly used in sport, the
peregrine falcon, the goshawk, and the
hen sparrow-hawk were generally used
to take partridges.

When hawking first fell out of favour,
there was nothing ready to take its place,
for the fowling-piece of the day was a
cumbrous and unreliable engine. Thus
while arms and ammunition were slowly
improving, there ensued an interregnum
in the world of sport, during which the
practice of netting partridges, now rightly
considered as arrant poaching, was

I

HISTORICAL 63

almost universally followed by country
gentlemen.

In tlie old game licences — to qualify
for the possession of which landed property
of a fixed value or the rank at least of
esquire was necessary — besides the more
legitimate means of bows, guns, and hawks,
we find frequent mention of " setting dogs
and lurchers, hays, nets, lowbels, snares,
or other engines to take game." The
birds were either driven into a fixed net,
or else found by dogs trained to lie down
when near to game and allow the net to
be drawn over them so that both dog and
birds were entangled in the toils.

By the middle of the eighteenth cen-
tury the old flint and steel locks had been
greatly improved, and were better adapted
for the -purposes of sport. Shooting be-
came more popular, and netting was no
longer considered fit sport for gentlemen.
The reign of George III. saw a marked
advance in all the material of shooting ;
double barrels now came into use, the per-
cussion cap and the patent breech were

64 PARTRIDGES

invented, and gunpowder of reliable quality
was for the first time readily obtainable.
Even then, the man with the gun must
have been at a great disadvantage to our
notions ; in the Art of Sltootiiig Flying
explained, published in 1767, 'Aimweir
gives as his advice to the 'young
practitioner ' —

Briskly draw the trigger as soon as you have
got an exact sight at the object, and continue
to keep your muzzle at it for some time after
you have drawn the trigger, lest your gun should
hang fire, which if it happen to do will render
your shot uncertain, especially if your mark is
moving any way from the line ; but by means of
keeping your gun in motion with the object, a
shot may be recovered, though it hangs fire.

When one considers the doubtful
execution of a piece about which such
advice could be necessary, the tight and
unsuitable attire then affected by sports-
men, the large and miscellaneous assort-
ment of powder-horns, dram-flasks, shot-
belts, canisters, wadding, pivots, copper
caps or flints carried on the person in
the field, one is inclined to believe in

Partridgf.s ox Wixg.

HISTORICAL 65

Mr. Aimwell's final dictum that

sport is very uncertain, and even the best marks-
men have oftentimes their miscarriages ; you may
go out several times and not get many shoots,
and unless a man is very alert, and strong enough
to undergo a deal of fatigue, he can attain the art
of shooting flying but very slowly.

Still the sportsmen of other days
managed to get quite as much fun out
of their shooting — though their weapons
were uncertain and game scarce and hard
to find — as any one who takes part in the
less arduous but infinitely more produc-
tive shooting of to-day. We have only
to read their diaries, to find a naive,
whole-hearted enthusiasm about shooting
in general, and their own deeds in par-
ticular, which seems somewhat lacking
among their descendants.

The third Earl of Malmesbury, who
began to shoot in 1798, closed the long
record of his shooting career by entering
in his diary that in 40 seasons he had
fired 54,987 shots, killing 38,475 head of
game (of which rather more than the
fourth part were partridges), walking

66 PARTRIDGES

36,200 miles in doing so, adding in con-
clusion that '* during these 40 seasons I
was — God be praised for it — never con-
fined to my bed by accident or sickness
one day."

Shooting then called for the exercise
of other qualities than mere accuracy of
aim, and the man with the gun had to
possess both considerable bodily endurance
and a thorough knowledge of the ways
and habits of his quarry, if he looked to
make good bags — in a literal sense — for
the products of a day's shooting rarely
exceeded the normal capacity of a game-
bag. But one would be sorry to ask
many of the present generation of shooters
to walk the best part of a mile for every
head of game they killed, as Lord Malmes-
bury did. The demand is for larger and
easier-won results in these days, when one
gun has been known to kill 300,000 head
in some twenty-five years.

Another of the old school was the
famous Colonel Peter Hawker, who
followed his dogs on the stubbles of Long-

HISTORICAL G7

parish, his Hampshire home, and punted

after the geese on the Solent, for the first

half of the past centmy. The Colonel

wanted no hecatombs of slain to make

him a day's sport ; he would cheerfully

muster all hands on the report of a single

pheasant in his woods, spend the whole

day in pouring rain manoeuvring after

him, and come home in the evening to

enter in his diary — "Never had a more

successful day in my life ; outwitted a

magnificent old cock-pheasant."

To those who have no first - hand

acquaintance with the Colonel, we would

effect an introduction by an extract from

the said diary.

1816. Sept. 16th. Never in my life had such a
satisfactory day*'s shooting. Although the birds
were rather wild than otherwise for the time of
year, and the number of coveys the Longparish
fields contained were by no means considerable,
yet I had the good fortune to bag 36 partridges
and 1 hare with literally never missing a single
shot and without losing one bird. I had 8
doublets and bagged both my birds every time,
and having once killed 2 at one shot with my
first barrel, I made 37 head of game in 36 shots.

68 PARTRIDGES

Had I at all picked my shots, I should not have
thought this any very extraordinary performance,
but so far from this a great number of my birds
were killed at long distances, and with instant-
aneous rapidity of shooting. I had my favourite
14<-o:auffe barrels of Joe Manton's and Mr. Butt's
cylinder gunpowder. The same gun all day which
was neither cleaned afresh nor even new flinted.

1828. Sept. 1st. Longparish. Strong east
wind ; ground as dry as Lundyfoot's snuff, but a
moderate breed of birds, and my two dogs on their
last legs. Therefore performed a miracle by
bagging 60 partridges (besides 6 more lost), 4
hares and 1 quail. Never in my life had such a
fagging day. Our army were literally worked off
their feed, to the joy of my commissariat ; but they
drank their extra hog- tub full of stiff swizzle,
which cost me more than the half of the sheep
that they left.

3rd. By slaving like a negro from 10 till 5, I
contrived to satchel 48 partridges (besides 3 brace
lost). Weather so dry that the only plan was to
walk all day with both barrels cocked, and snap
down the birds as they rose wild from the
stubbles.

6th. Was anxious to finish with 20 brace, and
never had such a hard run to make up the number.
The dogs were so done that even the falling of a
bird would not move them from my heels, and I
stood at 19 J brace for the last hour before night-
fall. I had no alternative but marching up and

HISTORICAL 69

down at a rapid pace, without dogs, and treading
the stubbles till I was ready to drop, but deter-
mined to die game. I fought to the last, but
through over-anxiety and fatigue, I missed two
fair shots ; but, at last, just at the farewell of
daylight a covey rose from the feed. I ' up gun ^
and down came a bird as dead as a hammer, a
long shot ; so gave three cheers (the butcher's
halloo for 20 brace) and came home in triumph
with 40 partridges on a pole.

Thus far the Colonel, no bad type of
the old English country gentleman, albeit
a man of the world and no mean musician
to boot. If these samples have interested
any, we can recommend the whole diary,
preserved for us by the hands of Sir
Ralph Payne Gallwey. A good book
for the * young idea,' wherein a later
generation may take a lesson in pluck and
endurance, for the Colonel would never
own himself beat, handicapped though he
was by somewhat indifferent general
health and an unserviceable leg, for his
thigh was shattered by a ball at Talavera,
when serving with his regiment, the 14th
Light Dragoons.

As guns and powder improved in

ro PARTRIDGES

quality, and the reduction in their cost
placed them within reach of almost any
one, the necessity for game being pre-
served first became a matter of importance.
So long as shooters were but few in the
land, and their means of destruction so
faulty, game contrived to take care of
itself, little preservation was necessary,
and sportsmen thought it no crime to
wander on to other folk's ground and
sample the game there. But with an
ever-increasing horde of shooters, it soon
became a question of either game becom-
ing extinct or measures being taken for
its preservation, and thus, of necessity,
came the game laws and their enforce-
ment. With the sixties came further
advance, Laing introducing the breech-
loader from France, a weapon of some-
what uncertain results at the time, but
which fifty years of steady improvement
has developed into the hammerless ejector
of to-day.

However superficially the history of
shooting in this country be considered,

HISTORICAL 71

one striking feature cannot fail to arrest
the attention — how, step by step, the
improvement of guns and shooting has
been attended by a proportionate increase
of game. So far, the supply has kept
pace with the demand ; but the limit
must nearly have been reached ; no
ground will carry more than a certain
stock, however good the systems of pre-
servation, and if there be still further
advance in our seemingly perfect sporting
weapons, game will surely be the sufferer.
To return to our records of the past.

In other days it was the fashion —
happily now discountenanced in every
form of sport worthy of the name — to
stake large sums of money on shooting
events. The actual stakes were not often
very heavy, but betting went on apace,
until the champions went out for a day's
partridge-shooting with thousands depend-
ing on the result. Thus while Lord de
Roos, Colonel Hon. George Anson and
Captain Ross were passing a hot July
afternoon in 1828 on the river, a casual

72 PARTRIDGES

discussion arose as to whether Captain
Ross, admittedly the finest pigeon shot
of the day, would hold his own as easily
at game. Before they reached Whitehall
Stairs, the terms of a match had been
arranged, I^ord de Roos backing himself
to find a champion to shoot partridges
against Captain Ross for £200 a side on
his own shootings at Milden in Suffolk ;
the match to be decided in a single day,
the 1st of November, the guns to walk
forty or fifty yards apart, shooting from
sunrise to sunset without any halt ; no
dogs to be used.

Lord de Roos chose Colonel Anson
as his champion, and the match duly
came off, with unusually heavy betting
on the result. Lord Anson offering to
back his brother for £10,000. The guns
paraded in the dark, and started at sun-
rise by the watch in a thick mist.
Colonel Anson set the pace, estimated
at between 4^ and 5 miles an hour, and
they kept this up to within a quarter of
an hour of sunset, when the Colonel,

HISTORICAL 73

leading by one bird, found himself unable
to go any further, and sent his seconds
to offer a draw, which Captain Ross,
who was still going as strong as ever,
accepted, because he found it impossible
to get a shot, the birds being all out
feeding on the stubbles.

The number of birds killed was very
small, only some 25 brace ; which was
scarcely to be wondered at, considering
how late in the season it was, and that
the guns were accompanied by two or
three hundred men on horseback, all
talking and betting on the shot, and
making what Captain Ross calls an ** in-
describable row." When the draw was
declared, Captain Ross, who, it must be
remembered, had just walked close on
forty- five miles in nine hours, offered
there and then to start against any one
present and race him on foot to London,
some seventy miles, for £500 a side, but
found no takers among the five or six
hundred people present.

Such ghmpses of the past are surely

74 PARTRIDGES

enough to make us blush for our own
generation of sportsmen, young gentlemen
still on the sunny side of thirty, who
call an eight o*clock breakfast "getting
up in the middle of the night," must have
a motor to take them within a few yards
of the first drive, their guns carried for
them from one stand to the next, and
an aluminium shooting seat to support
their weary forms at every halt. Truly
there were giants in those days.

The match of most personal interest
to myself is naturally that shot between
England and Scotland, in which my home
was selected to represent Scotland. From
the windows of the room wherein I write
can be seen the outline of a long wood
of dark firs, where grand sport is to be
had with the pigeon on a blustering
winter's evening. This wood owes its
name — Waterloo — to the great slaughter
of partridges effected in the then newly-
planted strip by Lord Kennedy on the
day of his match.

My grandfather. Sir William Maxwell

HISTORICAL 75

of Monreith, resenting an account pub-
lished of the match, in which it was stated
that *'Mr. Coke of course won easily,"
wrote a description of the event, which
I cannot do better than give here in his
own words.

Here is the account of the match shot by
Lord Kennedy in October 1823 : I was present
all the time. My father made a bet, with I
forget whom, that he would find a man to shoot
a hundred brace of partridges in one day on his
estate in Wigtownshire. He asked Lord Kennedy
to do it for him, who, after pronouncing it im-
possible, backed himself to shoot partridges two
days in Scotland against Mr. W. Coke in Norfolk,
in the month of October, on two days to be
fixed ; chance of weather, etc., to be run by both
parties. Lord Kennedy had intended to shoot
his first day at Newton Don, near Kelso, and was
not expected at Monreith for ten days. My
father^ w,as from home, and I, only a boy of
seventeen, here to receive him. He had travelled
all night, and arrived at Port William, a neigh-
bouring village, about 9 a.m. Hearing of his
arrival, I went and found him, Valentine Maher
(umpire for Coke), and Farquharson of Blackball,

^ Sir William Maxwell, 5th Bart., locally known as
^ VVunged Sir Wulliam/ having lost an arm from a round
shot when commanding the 26th Regiment at Corunna.

76 PARTRIDGES

just finishing breakfast, surrounded by game-
keepers and dogs of his own.

Lord Kennedy gave me a letter he had from
Sir Alexander Don, saying he could not ensure
him twenty brace of birds at Newton Don, as
the corn w^as all uncut, and advising him to shoot
both the days of his match with Coke at Monreith ;
in consequence of which he had posted day and
night, in order to be here in time for the first
appointed day (as well as for the one hundred
brace match). I told Lord Kennedy I could not
let him go on the ground kept for the one
hundred brace match. I went off in search of
our gamekeeper. He said, at that hour in the
day he could only take him to ground which had
been shot over in September, or some which had
been driven and disturbed with a view to the one
hundred brace match.

About eleven o'clock Lord Kennedy started,
and that day got between forty and fifty brace ;
Coke shooting the same day at Holkham ninety-
three brace. My father came home in the
evening, having been nearly lost in a gale of
wind the previous night in his yacht. He wished
Lord Kennedy to stay and walk over the ground
before the second day of the match ; but he did
not, and only returned on the evening before the
second day's shooting.

On that day (the one on which the hundred
brace match was to be decided), at 11.30 a.m.,
when Lord Kennedy stopped to refresh at a farm-

HISTORICAL 77

house, he had sixty brace in his bag, and the best
of the ground before him ; a fine still day. We
had ready for him a brace of steady old setters,
but he would not shoot a bird over them, insisting
on using his own black pointers, never before shot
over except on moors ; neither would he go to
coveys marked into whins and broken ground ; he
seemed to think that would not be fair, although
Maher, umpire for Coke, agreed that he ought to
do so.

The only 'hedge' my father had to a heavy
book was a bet of some twenty guineas that Lord
Kennedy would not get a shot in twenty minutes,
if he persevered over a line of bare grass fields,
instead of going to the marked and driven coveys.

As it was, he got ninety-three brace and a half,
and Coke at Holkham ninety-six. I think these
were the numbers ; at any rate, neither of them
made the hundred brace to bag, while each shot
more than ninety brace. A great many dead
birds were picked up here afterwards. Both Val.
Maher and Farquharson were disappointed in
Lord Kennedy's shooting. I have never seen any-
thing like it. Certainly very few birds were
missed, and the whole ground was strewed with
cripples for days afterwards. I recollect my
father saying nothing on earth would induce him
to allow another match on his ground. I am
convinced Lord Kennedy killed and 'kiW 120
brace that day.

He shot homewards, and during the last two

78 PARTRIDGES

hours of daylight lost a deal of time by his dogs
bothering with hares and pheasants going out to
feed, and his last two shots were a cock and hen
pheasant.

None of us had the least doubt — nor, after
the event, had Lord Kennedy himself — that he
would have killed over one hundred brace had he
shot over our old dogs and gone where our game-
keepers advised. I remember being told that
Coke had his birds driven into turnips, and shot
over an old pointer 'as slow as a man"* both
days.

Wigtownshire beaten by Norfolk, for two days,
was by no means a matter of course in those days.

On a neighbouring estate Lord Garlics backed
himself to shoot fifty brace in one day the year
before. No preparation — no driving of birds.
Despite a bad start through a wet and stormy
morning, when the wind fell and the sun came out
he made such good use of his time that he stopped
at three o'clock, having killed some fifty-six brace,
after offering to double his bet that he would
shoot eighty brace ; but the ease with which it
miffht be done was so evident that no one would

CD

take it.

I have little doubt that if Lord Garlics had
undertaken our match instead of Lord Kennedy
we should have won ; not that Lord G. was
the better shot of the two, but he would have
taken advice and kept his temper better.

Alas that Galloway should have fallen

HISTORICAL 79

so far from her high estate in the sporting
world since those halcyon days. I have
often seen this instanced as the results of
bad management and slackness in pre-
serving, but this has little to do with the
matter. Slackness and want of method
there may be, but in the disuse of the
plough lies our real trouble. Formerly
every available acre was cultivated, but
now we have three or four grass fields to
one that is under crop. Where this is
the case, no human skill can produce a
big stock of partridges, as stocks are
reckoned nowadays.

We can still show good sport, drives
from some turnip-field bordering on the
moorland, where you shall have fair chance
of killing every form of game, from a
blackcock to a snipe, at the one stand,
but for partridges alone we can never
again hope to compete with Norfolk on
equal terms, nor indeed with neighbours
on our own East coast, where probably
only one field in four is pasture.

CHAPTER TV

PRESERVATION AND MANAGEMENT

Partridge ground, good and bad — Keepers and their work
— The various systems of modern preservation.

Perhaps the simplest way to deal with
the questions of partridge ground good
and bad, and the preservation and
management thereof, will be to take as
example an estate without a single * crab '
to it — the sort of place one dreams of
sometimes after a good dinner, but never
meets with in real life — and consider in
some detail the leading features and char-
acteristics of this earthly paradise. Need-
less to say, this gem without flaw is not
one which any one can hope to materialize
in all respects, but it is the right way to
set about things, to set up an unattainable
ideal — " to hitch your waggon to a star,"

80

i^— r

'Ifr

"^r

(i) CiooD Xestixg Ground.

(2) Bad Xesting Ground.

PRESERVATION 81

as Emerson says — and see how closely,
with the more limited means at our
disposal, we may attain to it in practice.

It may also serve as some guide for
any would-be owners or lessees of
partridge - shootings, who are not well
acquainted with the business, as to what
points should be borne in mind in apprais-
ing the worth of a shooting. Our estate,
then, is of some 8000 acres in extent,
wide enough scope to make of it a little
world of our own, yet not of such size as
would render it unhandy to manage or
unwieldy to supervise. It all lies in a
ring fence, with no awkward projections
of land into neighbours' territory, or in-
cursion of Naboth's vineyards among our
own farms.

The general lie of the ground is gently
undulating, with long, level slopes of a
warm and sunny exposure. On every
side the estate marches with other large
and well-preserved manors, and the whole
length of the boundary, principles of
*give and take' work to the mutual

82 PARTRIDGES

advantage of all. This is an important
consideration, for if, as is only too
commonly the case, the neighbouring
ground suffers unduly from powder and
shot, there will be a steady drain on your
young birds to replenish a depleted stock,
while unpreserved ground harbours an un-
limited supply of vermin, which periodic-
ally swarm over the boundary, joyfully
to take possession of your swept and
garnished house, giving the keepers all
their work to do over again. The climate
is as equable and dry as may be looked
for in these islands, such rainfall as there
is being well distributed, and storms of
rare occurrence.

The soil is light but mixed, light loam
and sandy ground predominating, with
some admixture of stronger and heavier
land. Scattered over the estate, small
patches of waste and sandy land, not
repaying the labour of cultivation, and
covered with bracken, whins, and heath,
make splendid natural nesting-ground and
shelter. With this exception, and omit-

PRESERVATION 83

ting the 500 acres of park and policies,
practically the whole estate is cultivated
on a four years' course, most of the land
being too light to be laid down in per-
manent pasture. This is, of course, an
essential condition if you wish the land to
carry a heavy stock of partridges, and in
many parts of the country the ever-
increasing waste — to the game preserver's
eye — of land laid down in permanent
grass presents a partridge problem of
which no solution seems possible. The
ground is fortunate in being well watered
by a number of springs and streamlets,
and a dry summer can be faced with
equanimity.

No main line of railway, with deadly
maze of telegraph wires, crosses the estate;
roads, footpaths, and rights-of-way are not
inordinate in number, while the popula-
tion is purely agricultural and the farms
above the average in size. The fields run
big, some reaching 60 to 80 acres ; they
are, for the most part, divided by solid
earthen banks with sloping sides, which,

84 PARTRIDGES

fenced on either side and planted with
broom, provide the best of ground for
birds to nest in. There are no ditches to
trap young birds. The whole ground is
further divided into squares of from 200
to 250 acres by belts of hardwood trees,
standing ten to twenty deep and some 50
feet in height. These again provide sites
for hundreds of nests, and are invaluable
for the purposes of driving in the autumn
and for shelter at all times.

On this Utopian manor of ours the
ground is watched and the game cared for
by a most efficient staff. First there is
the head-keeper, on whose qualities the
welfare of the shooting so largely depends.
He is one of the modern school, vigorous,
alert, and enterprising ; perhaps not such
an entertaining companion by flood and
field as the veterans of other days ; he may
fail to amuse by quaint turn of phrase or
picturesque appearance, nor will he have
the time to turn and saunter along with
you for half an hour's leisurely conversa-
tion when you chance to meet.

PRESERVATION 85

But he is the riglit stamp of man for
all that ; courteous to all and yet familiar
with none, considerate of the interests
of others yet never unmindful of his
master's, he has justly earned the respect
of the whole countryside. Fair and just
in all his dealings, his underlings know
that while good work will not pass un-
recognized, no slovenly or slipshod ways
will be for an instant condoned. He has
no slight knowledge of natural history,
and moves through life with an observant
eye and an open and adaptive mind, not
wedded to tradition, but ever ready to
consider new theories or suggestions and
turn them to his purpose. In the field he
never gets hustled or flurried, and is quick
to make the best of unlooked-for contin-
gencies when they arise. His books are
accurately and neatly kept, and require
little or no endorsement at the hands of
the agent ; for he is a business man with
all his energies and faculties concentrated
on his work, only asking of his sub-
ordinates what he freely gives himself —

86 PARTRIDGES

cheerful and ungrudging service and a
whole-hearted devotion to duty.

Not a man to be pitied our head-
keeper, despite all Mr. Owen Jones says
about keepering being such a badly paid
profession. As head on a large estate he
draws £70 to £80 a year in wages, £30 to
£50 a year in tips, with a good house,
garden, and the usual allowances ; better
pay than many a struggling parson can
look for — and as he is really fond of his
work for its own sake, our keeper may be
fairly considered as one who is contented
with his lot — which is no small thing to
be in this restless generation. Finally, he
is a good master to his dogs, careful of
their welfare, patient with their education,
and proud of their appearance and per-
formances in the field.

There are eight other keepers on the
estate ; with two of these we have no con-
cern here, for their duties lie entirely
within the demesne where the two
thousand pheasants which furnish the
annual covert shoot are reared and main-

PRESERVATION 87

tained. The duties of the remaining six
underlings are solely confined to the part-
ridges ; each has his own beat to look
after, each beat compact and self-con-
tained, and varying in size from the 700
acre beat round the village, with small
fields bounded by rough hedges and much
intersected by roads and paths, to the
1500 acre beat where the fields are large
and open, with little rough ground to
harbour vermin or increase the difficulty
of finding the nests.

The under-keepers also belong to the
modern school ; they are to a man young,
brisk, intelligent, and hard-working ; well-
disciplined, they are still quite ready to
accept responsibility on occasion. They
are not permanencies, as they all mean to
make their way in the world. Meantime,
though they have a hard life and draw
but modest wages, they are having the
finest training in the world for their pro-
fession. Five years' insight into the work-
ings of a really well-managed estate is
worth half a lifetime of casual experience.

88 PARTRIDGES

and will fit a man with his wits about him
and his heart in the work for any head-
keeper's place. The conditions and sur-
roundings may be very dissimilar, but his
education will apply anywhere. He will
have learnt to work hard himself and
expect others to work hard under him ; to
live on good terms with all those around
him, while avoiding undue familiarity with
any ; to move about his business with
energy, never quite satisfied with the past,
always seeking to do a little better in the
future ; to profit by failures, working out
for himself how and why things went
wrong ; and finally to take an honest pride
in himself and his work. If they want
their shootings run efficiently and economi-
cally, proprietors when selecting a head-
keeper should always consider what school
he has been trained in rather than what is
the actual range of his experience.

So we lose the services of one or other
of the under-keepers most years. This
does not in practice prove such a handicap
as would appear, for the head-keeper has

PRESERVATION 89

always got his eye on some likely lad, and
the infusion of fresh blood is, on the whole,
healthy, and tends to keep things alive.

The keeper's year may now be said to
begin with the calendar, for the driving
is all over before the end of December.
The regular shooting once finished, a man
is rarely taken off his beat, for it is
recognized that there is quite enough work
on his own ground to keep his time well
filled.

The first three months are given up to
getting the ground in order for the nesting
season. Odd cock pheasants have to be
pursued and killed, any superfluous hares
taken off the ground, and wounded and
wasting partridges cleared off. Then the
rabbits have to be taken in hand, and
trapped and shot to the verge of extinc-
tion, or they will multiply apace and give
trouble later on. When foxes are pre-
served rabbits are of some value in
occupying their attentions, but otherwise
they are an unmitigated nuisance on
partridge ground, a prolific source of

90 PARTRIDGES

trouble, and a standing attraction to
vermin. Then the nesting-ground has
all to be thoroughly gone over, gaps in
hedges filled, fences repaired, game covers
trimmed and their banks strengthened —
not work that the keeper has actually to
do himself, but the necessity for which
he must note and point out to the estate
authorities, or it is apt to be overlooked.

Finally, and by far the most important
of all, the early spring is the season to
seriously tackle the ever-present question
of vermin. Desultory warfare there
always is between the keeper and the
carnivora, but now stoats, weasels, hedge-
hogs, and cats must be sought for and
trapped with unremitting energy. Crows,
magpies, and sparrow-hawks have to be
found and singled out for destruction,
before other matters begin to press.
Each beat-keeper is constantly round his
ground at this season, with spade, ferret,
and traps. Every trace of his enemies
is carefully noted ; tracks, droppings, even
a dead rabbit all tell their own tale, and

PRESERVATION 91

clearly bespeak their origin to the pro-
fessional eye. Besides the common gin,
each keeper knows how to use snares,
deadfall, and figure - of - four traps on
occasion, and has a large * hugger' trap
for the special edification of poaching
dogs and cats. Every rabbit hole in the
banks and hedgerows, once cleared of its
occupants, is carefully filled up, lest it
should acquire new tenants or serve to
harbour wandering vermin. The use of
the gun is not encouraged among the
keepers, its employment only being
sanctioned where the trap and the spade
are useless.

Vermin money is never allowed, for
we hold that it would be working on
quite a wrong principle to allow extra
pay — as if it was for something quite
outside his ordinary work — for perhaps
the most important of a keeper's regular
duties. This widespread custom further
places a dangerous temptation in a young
man's path, and there have been many
instances of keepers treating vermin as

92 PARTRIDGES

**the goose that lays the golden eggs,"
and practically farming them on a small
scale, to their own profit and the detri-
ment of the ground. Reprehensible, no
doubt, but very natural, and if instead of
paying a shilling for a sparrow-hawk in
April you have to allow five shillings for
five hawks in August, when all the mis-
chief has been done, you have really only
yourself to thank.

While on the subject of allowances, it
may also be noted that farming by the
keepers is not countenanced ; each keeper
may have his cow, but it is considered
that his work, if properly attended to,
will not allow him spare time enough to
keep and look after stock. On the other
hand, the under-keepers are well treated ;
their wages are above the average, each
man getting from £l a week, a good
house, coals, and a cow's grass. In
addition each receives annually a suit
of the uniform worn on the estate, a
tough and serviceable homespun of dis-
tinctive pattern, and a thick waterproof

PRESERVATION 98

cloak for night-watching, renewed when
necessary.

In a work on keepers and their hves
published last year,^ it was laid down that
all rabbits and pigeons killed were the
fair perquisite of the keeper, and even
that he had a fair claim to any game
killed by vermin or ' chance-killed game '
unsuitable for his employer's table. As
in the same chapter it is stated that the
keeper " puts his best work into his garden,
which is often the model plot of a rural
community," and also that he " may keep
fowls at his employers expense, make
money by dog-breeding and exhibiting,
earn vermin and rabbit money (whatever
that is) as extra pay, and receive from his
employer — if a generous master — a brace
of pheasants and a hare to take home with
him after every shooting party," it is fairly
clear that this is not our standard of a
gamekeeper ; but it does seem a pity to
advance such dangerous theories in an
otherwise excellent and deservedly widely

^ A Gamekeeper's Note-Book, by Owen Jones.

94 PARTRIDGES

read book. A gamekeeper has every
opportunity for cheating his employer if
he be so disposed, and it is most important
that the bargain between them should
be clearly defined, leaving no shadowy
boundary between right and wrong
through which a weak man may drift
from a casual regard of what is other
people's property to a career of downright
dishonesty.

However favourably we may wish to
picture this estate, we cannot, if it is to
bear any relation to actual fact, suppose
that it numbers no rats among its in-
habitants. In March, then, the rats are
poisoned in their holes ; not casually but
most systematically, the joint efforts of
the whole available staff being con-
centrated on each part of the ground in
turn. Any rats fortunate enough to
escape these attentions have still the beat-
keeper to reckon with, and thus it is often
the case that when the nesting season
begins, there is scarcely a rat on the
whole ground. This desirable state of

PRESERVATION 95

affairs would, of course, be impossible of
attainment were our neighbours on every
side not equally zealous in extirpation.

Hedgehogs are dealt with about this
time too, an old dog having been trained
to hunt them after dark on grass-lands, at
which time they are easiest to find, though
secure from human foes unless some one
with a nose is added to the party. Thus,
after steady trapping throughout the year
— perhaps a trap to every four or five
acres is always in use — culminating in a
regular crusade in the early spring, the
end of April finds the enemies of game a
negligible quantity and there is one danger
the less to be reckoned with.

Vigilance must, however, not be wholly
relaxed ; with May come wandering
families, of stoats, anxious to settle down
where food is plentiful, and there are
always other casual nomads of the vermin
world to be guarded against.

The system on which we work in the
nesting season is to assist the methods of
nature in every way we can, but never to

96 PARTRIDGES

supplant them by methods of our own,
recognizing that the partridge is a better
parent than any substitute we can hope
to provide, and that birds reared under
natural conditions in a wild state make
the best and healthiest stock.

At the end of April each keeper has
served out to him a large scale map of his
beat, and a tabulated notebook in which
to keep his records. From the first week
in May till the old birds have begun to
sit — after which time undue disturbance
of the ground must be avoided — the
keepers are out from dawn till close on
mid-day systematically hunting for the
nests. Each nest as found is marked on
the map with a number in a circle, and
under the corresponding figure in the note-
book is entered the day on which the bird
began to sit, the number of eggs hatched
and addled, what eggs were changed or
added to the nest, and the cause of any
disaster, should it occur. About two-
thirds to three-fourths of the total nests
— the proportion varying according to the

PRESERVATION 97

season and growth of herbage — are thus
found and accounted for.

The summarized results are vahiable
as a work of reference in after years, for
they show most clearly what the work in
the past has been worth, and how far
measures taken to rid the partridges of
their enemies, improvise or construct
nesting-ground, or improve the stock by
change of blood have proved successful.^

The definite aim of keeping his records
up to date also helps to keep a man up to
his work. The maps and records of each
beat-keeper are occasionally checked by
the head-keeper and his master — for we
naturally like to fancy ourselves as owner
of this place, taking a real interest in the
keepers and their work all the year round ;
the beat-keeper then produces his map,
half-a-dozen nests are selected there-
from at random, and the accuracy of his
notes tested first - hand. This guards
against the possible danger of a man

^ The benefits of a successful change of blood should be
realized in an increase in the average number of eggs laid.

7

98 PARTRIDGES

getting slack about his work, and draw-
ing on his imagination to supply any
deficiency in his returns.

Each nest is visited as far as possible
once a day, the keeper not making a pro-
longed business of inspecting the nest,
but just walking close enough, without
stopping, to ascertain that all is well.
He carries with him on his rounds a
couple of traps for immediate use if any
trace of vermin be discovered, a strong
knife to cut branches which he may want
to stick into the ground round any
exposed nest he may find, artificial eggs
to replace any he may see fit to lift, and
a specially contrived belt in which eggs
may be carried and kept warm. All the
ground is searched twice, for the old birds
nest a week or so earlier than the young
ones. If a pair of old birds usurp an un-
due extent of territory for their nesting
operations, they sometimes have to be
cleared out. Each man knows that as
soon as the partridge uncovers her eggs
he must on no account go near the nest

PRESERVATION 99

for a day or two, as any disturbance at
this critical time may make her desert.

All nests in safe places are left alone,
except that some of the eggs are changed
with other beats, with perhaps a few spare
eggs added if the full clutch is much
under twenty. Changing of eggs is
systematically carried out all over the
ground, both with other estates and also
by free interchange between beats. Nests
on roadsides and exposed places are
treated according to the degree of danger
to which they seem exposed ; if there
appears to be a reasonable chance of their
survival, they are dealt with on the
Euston system, as described later in this
chapter when treating of foxes ; but if
their prospects of success are slight, the
eggs are taken to the incubator as soon as
the clutch is nearly completed, and the
nest destroyed in the hopes that the bird
may have a second nest of seven or eight
eggs in a more favourable situation.

When any misfortune befalls a nest,
should the sitting bird forsake or be killed,

100 PARTRIDGES

the eggs are generally found before they
are spoilt, and taken to the incubator.
All these eggs are either added to eon-
temporary nests, or else allowed to hatch
in the incubator, and turned down with
newly hatched coveys as soon as dry.
Late in the season, the family arrange-
ments of dilatory partridges are hurried
on by the use of the incubator and the
dummies, and the fortnight thus saved
must often make the whole difference to
the chances of the covey.

When the hay is cut, the beat-keeper
is always there, working his dog in front
of the mowing machine, and doing all he
can to save his birds. Without offering
rewards for partridge nests — a practice apt
to do more harm than good by encourag-
ing indiscriminate nest -hunting — great
stress is laid on keeping the farmers and
farm-hands not only neutral, but actively
interested in the shooting. Some of the
farm-hands are right good fellows, and
are as useful as extra keepers in the
summer. The farmers and the keepers

PRESERVATION 101

live on the best of terms ; the keepers can
do them many a good turn in the year,
and in return the farmers lend us their
aid when most required, studying the
interests of the game at all times, and
most materially forwarding our efforts in
a hundred different ways, by looking after
their dogs, cutting their hay and corn
with regard to the birds in it, and keeping
their men from disturbing the fences — all
helping to produce that extra fifty brace
in October, which they are as proud as
any one to see killed off their land.

After the corn is cut, the stubbles and
grass fields are * bushed ' with thorns,
more as a precautionary measure than for
actual prevention, for where the ground
is so well watched and the labourers so
friendly, poaching is at a discount.

Before September comes each keeper
has to furnish some estimate of the
number of birds on his ground, from
which data the amount of shooting can
be anticipated. In a good year ten days'
driving can fairly be reckoned on in

102 PARTRIDGES

October, and another five days later in
the season. Six thousand birds off the
8000 acres is not an undue estimate on
first-class ground, and a pair of birds to
every 4 or 5 acres is about the stock that
the ground will comfortably carry, seeing
that the partridges have it all their own
way, the merest sprinkling of pheasants
being allowed to nest outside the home
covers.

But all estates are not equally blessed,
and we must now consider some of the
problems which present themselves very
forcibly in the ordinary course of pre-
servation. Perhaps the commonest of
these is provided by the rival sport of
hunting. The presence of foxes on an
estate vastly complicates the question of
partridge preservation. The fox, deadliest
foe to game, must not only be tolerated
but encouraged, and though it has been
proved beyond all doubt that both foxes
and partridges can exist on the same
ground in sufficient numbers for the
purpose of sport, still the life of a keeper

PRESERVATION 103

in a strictly preserved hunting country is
not altogether a happy one ; his cares and
anxieties are very sensibly increased, and
the uncertainty of reaping any fruit of his
labours, one of the most trying features
of a keeper's work at any time, is now
doubled by the ever-present snake which
he must cherish in his bosom.

Of course it may be said that the
keeper's duty is to carry out his master's
wishes, and that he should be as pleased
when foxes are found in plenty as he was
the year when mange had decimated their
numbers, and two hundred brace figured
in the game-book as the product of a
single day for the first, and probably the
last, time. Such a nice sense of propor-
tion is, however, denied to human nature,
and for the most part you will find the
keeper either very much in earnest about
his partridges, in which case the foxes
remain a permanent thorn in the flesh, or
else keen about hunting, the partridges
then taking a second place in his estima-
tion and suffering accordingly.

104 PARTRIDGES

It is by no means every fox who takes
to hunting for partridge nests, but once
indulged in, the habit soon becomes con-
firmed and ineradicable in the individual.
The worst offenders are mangy foxes,
who alone hunt by day as well as night,
and old vixens seeking food for their cubs.
It is always advisable to keep a plentiful
supply of rabbits for the foxes, unless the
interests of forestry have to be considered.
Rabbits are the staple food of the fox,
and where they are to be had for the
catching, the foxes may refrain from
trying any novelties in the way of food.

Many and various are the devices
employed to save the nests. The simplest
way is to surround the nest with a smell
which foxes dislike, such as handfuls of
grass dipped hi * animal oil,' rags soaked
in a mixture of oil of burnt hartshorn
and creosote or gas tar, or one of many
patent * stinks ' now sold for the purpose.
These may serve their turn well enough
for a time, but the fox is full of guile,
learns to associate certain evil smells with

PRESERVATION 105

a dinner of two courses, and the keeper is
hoist with his own petard. A further
refinement is to lay a trail of the par-
ticular 'stink' used along the fence,
passing wide of the nest by describing a
semicircle round it; the fox may then
follow the trail and miss the nest.

Wire of a mesh large enough to allow
free passage to the bird but none to the
fox is sometimes put up a yard or so from
the nest on either side of the fence, and
well fastened down into the hedge bottom.
This may at times effect its immediate
purpose, but is very liable to disturb the
sitting bird, and further advertises the
exact position of the nest to all and
sundry, which is obviously undesirable.

Mr. Allington quotes^ a keeper who
im{)roved on this device by placing a
white flag on each side of the fence
opposite to and about a yard from the
nest, or farther off at first if the sitting
bird showed any signs of uneasiness, and
gradually brought nearer as she got used

^ In Partridge Driving, edition of 1910.

106 PARTRIDGES

to it. This plan was said to have been a
complete success for four years, the fox
not venturing to pass between the flag
and the fence, and thus missing the nest.
Still, with partridge eggs at £5 a hundred,
many keepers would deem it an over-
risky expedient to flag their nests like so
many putting greens on a golf course, and
as easily located.

Old and unset iron traps scattered
round the nest are a common device, or an
old chain laid all round the nest, which
latter is said to form a magic circle
through which no fox will ever pass:
both these should be well handled at
frequent intervals. Stable lanterns sus-
pended a foot or so above the ground,
with cheap roasting-jacks attached to
them, have also been recommended as
efficient protection during the night.

All these devices can be profitably
employed on occasion, but it is very
doubtful if any one of them could per-
manently be trusted to protect nests.
The keeper who would outwit his wily

PRESERVATION 107

adversaries must not only ring the changes
on every known device, but also for ever
be devising new methods of baffling the
enemy.

All nesting ground that admits of it
should be enclosed by six feet of well and
strongly set wire-netting, supported by a
strong steel wire run through it at half
its height. One authority^ gives an in-
genious and economical method of making
this absolutely fox-proof. A single strand
of stout wire is stretched from standard
to standard above the wire- netting (the
standards, if of wood, must be provided
with an iron eyelet stanchion for the pur-
pose). Suspended on this wire by means of
bent wire cross-pieces are lengths of ridg-
ing, an inexpensive material of galvanized
sheet-iron. The ridging has free play,
working on the single wire, and any fox
trying to jump on to the top of the netting
fails to gain foothold and falls backwards.

While all these palliative measures are
effective at times, it seems that in the

1 Mr. W. Carnegie, in Practical Game Preserving.

108 PARTRIDGES

adoption of the so-called *Euston' system
is to be found the only reliable remedy
for the trouble caused by foxes. Marlow,
head-keeper to Lord Ashburton at the
Grange, rendered a great service to pre-
servers of game in hunting countries
when he discovered the fact that once a
partridge hen has been sitting on her eggs
for twenty-four hours, she may be handled
and lifted or gently put off her nest with-
out any fear of her forsaking altogether.
This made it possible for the keepers to
abstract, replace, or substitute eggs at
will during practically the whole period
of incubation, and, having got so far,
systematic use of this idea soon followed
as a matter of course.

Mr. Pearson Gregory was the first to
practise the system, and has shown on his
estate of Harlaxton in Lincolnshire, lying
in the very heart of the Belvoir country,
how by its means the damage caused by
foxes may be minimized. The system
should really be known as the * Harlax-
ton,' but as Mr. Pearson Gregory was

PRESERVATION 109

tenant of the Duke of Grafton's shootings
at Euston, and as the keepers there added
chipped eggs to their wild pheasants'
nests at the time of hatching, there arose
some little confusion on the subject, and
Mr. Gregory's invention became generally
known as the * Euston' system.

Its objects are twofold. In the first
case, it seeks to protect the eggs by keep-
ing them from all danger from the first
week of laying to the hour of hatching ;
secondly, it aims at lessening the danger
to the sitting bird and her nest by shorten-
ing the period of incubation from three
weeks to one.

In brief, its methods are these : all
nests possible are found and each bird is
allowed to lay four eggs without interfer-
ence ; these, and all subsequent eggs as
she lays them, are then taken by the
keepers and either put into the incubator
or set under hens, being at the same time
replaced in the nest by artificial eggs.^

^ The original artificial eggs were found very unsatis-
factory, and birds often refused to have anything to do

110 PARTRIDGES

The partridge is allowed to sit for one
week on the dummies, after which time
she is willing to mother any chicks that
may hatch. A batch of chipped eggs are
then taken from the coops or the in-
cubator, carried to the nest in a basket of
warm bran, and substituted for the
dummies. In a few hours the mother
will have hatched and taken off the brood,
thus evading all the dangers of the last
two days of incubation, which, as is well
known, is just the time that foxes do
most mischief. For then the scent, which
the sitting bird has been able to suppress
since incubation commenced, returns to
the nest (due perhaps to the chicks in the
eggs), rendering it an easy prey to any
passing * varmint.'

Besides the main object of this system,
its adoption is attended by several minor
advantages. A constant change of blood

with them ; but now many excellent imitations of the
natural egg are on the market. Mr. Maiden, Home,
Horley, supplies an egg which, were it not for the small
hole purposely left open at one end, would be almost in-
distinguishable from the genuine article.

PRESERVATION 111

all over the ground is assured; the wastage,
caused by birds sitting on unfertile eggs,
ceases; and the keeper can exactly regulate
the hatching time of any nest so that tlie
chicks start life under the most propitious
circumstances. It might be supposed
that the keeper would find himself left
with more eggs on hand than he could
dispose of, especially should accidents
befall many of the hens who are sitting
on dummies. But as it has been found
quite safe to put as many as thirty eggs in
a nest, questions of supply and demand
are generally easy to regulate.

The working of this system is inex-
pensive, though doubtless it entails hard
work on the part of the keepers, which
might lead some to oppose its introduc-
tion, or demand an increased staff to cope
with the work. To any urging such
objections, let it be pointed out that in
Lincolnshire one man has worked a beat
of 1500 acres on the Euston system, with
a hatch of 1200 birds in a season.

On dry soils, where no springs or

112 PARTRIDGES

streams afford natural drinking-places for
the partridges, it is advisable to give the
birds drinking-fountains in dry and hot
summers. It is true that they can manage
well enough without them, but numerous
self-feeding fountains placed in the fields
and kept clean and sweet will well repay
any extra trouble they may entail, by
helping to keep the stock healthy. Mr.
F. E. Fryer, whose management of a
small estate at Newmarket entitles him
to speak with the voice of authority —
does not his land produce l^ birds to the
acre ? — considers this a sure precaution
against gapes, which scourge may well,
as he suggests, come from birds drinking
in the nearest dirty puddle after a shower,
and thus absorbing the embryo gape-
worm.

Remises, or sanctuaries provided for
shelter, food, and nesting, are scarcely
germane to the subject of preservation in
general, for they are a luxury which only
the very few, to whom money is no
object, can well afford. A description of

PRESERVATION 118

one will be found among the notes from
Welbeck Abbey in Chapter V.

With ordinary care and attention the
hand-rearing of partridge^ presents no
peculiar difficulty, and demands only the
ordinary appliances of pheasant-rearing.
On principle, absolute certainty as to the
source of supply in buying eggs should
be insisted on ; in practice, it is to be
feared that this precaution is sometimes
neglected, else were egg-stealing not so
profitable a pursuit.^

The treatment up to hatching time
differs in no respect from pheasant-rear-
ing, save only that it is advisable to set
the eggs under a smaller type of hen than
usual. Bantams and silkies, when they
can be induced to sit, which is not

^ To ensure an honest source in buying eggs, every one
should be most particular in this country to deal only with
Associates of the Field Sports and Game Guild, of which
the Duke of Leeds is president, the Duke of Abercorn
vice-president, and which numbers all respectable dealers
in eggs among its associates. When buying eggs direct
from Austria-Hungary it is well to communicate with the
society of the same name in Vienna. It is said that close
on 100,000 stolen partridge eggs annually find their way
into this country.

8

114 PARTRIDGES

always, make excellent foster-mothers.
From 15 to 20 eggs may be given to
each hen.

There is always considerable risk of
the hen trampling on newly hatched birds
when they are still weak and wet. This
may be obviated by having an incubator
set up under cover close by, and, when
the eggs begin to chip, taking all but two
from the hen and putting them into the
incubator. The hen duly hatches her
two and is therefore ready to undertake
the charge of a family ; the remainder
hatch in the incubator, are kept for a
short time in the drying box, and are
given back to the hen before they have
reached the active and independent stage,
which comes almost as soon as they are
dry. They then go straight under the
hen, and she takes to them, which she
will not always do if they have been left
too long in the drying box and run off in
search of food. This device was originated
and very successfully practised by Mr. F.
Hawkins, head-keeper at Eynsham Hall.

PRESERVATION 115

The natural food of the chick is the
egg of the yellow meadow ant, but this
should not be given from the start unless
a continued supply be assured, for the
young birds quickly acquire a taste for
ant's eggs, and are then apt to refuse
any other kind of food. Where ant's
eggs in sufficient quantity are not avail-
able, the partridge meal supplied by
any reliable manufacturer of game foods,
mixed with custard and green food, will be
found to answer the purpose fairly well.

The young chicks require to be fed
five times a day for the first week or so,
four times a day for the next fortnight,
and three times a day thereafter. When
the young partridges are half grown and
about six weeks old, the coops should be
moved to the edge of some oat-field, and
placed in dry spots far enough from each
other to prevent the various coveys
collecting in a pack. After a few days
of liberty the young birds will leave their
foster-mother altogether, and then require
little further attention.

116 PARTRIDGES

In my own opinion, rearing partridges
by hand where soil and local conditions
are favourable to the wild birds must
always — even on a small scale after a
succession of bad seasons — be a short-
sighted policy, eventually defeating its
own ends. For while it certainly pro-
duces an increased number of birds for
the one year, at the same time a number
of birds, unlikely to make good parents
in the future and unduly susceptible to
disease, are turned out to lower the
standard of the whole stock.

It would seem that the same rule
applies to partridges as to pheasants — rear
once and you are committed to rear
always. If the truth of this be allowed,
the profitable adoption of hand-rearing
for partridges is limited to estates where
a cold clay soil, a strict preservation of
foxes, or other untoward local circum-
stances make it hopeless to look for any
number of partridges under natural con-
ditions. Here if 1000 eggs be bought
every year, and CO to 70 per cent hatched

PRESERVATION 117

and reared, driving days of 150 brace
may be had, where, without such adven-
titious aid, 20 brace would be about the
limit.

Hand-reared birds are almost always
found to be deficient in the homing
instinct, so strongly developed in the
wild partridges. As they also have a
marked tendency to gather in packs early
in the season, especially if the coveys
have been turned out too close together,
their utility on a small shooting is always
somewhat problematical, and they appear
to best advantage when turned out in
the centre of a large estate, whence they
will have ample scope to wander without
crossing the boundary.

So far as the actual shooting is con-
cerned, hand -reared partridges differ in
no particular from wild birds, flying just
as well and giving equally good sport ;
yet at the best there clings about them
some taint of artificiality to any one who
cares at all for our wild game birds and
their ways, and is not solely occupied

118 PARTRIDGES

with the desire to let off his gun as often
as possible.

The French system is another, and for
many reasons preferable, method of arti-
ficially increasing a stock, but it is only
applicable in natural partridge country,
and therefore could not always be sub-
stituted for hand-rearing. This system
was devised by the Due de Montebello,
and was borrowed by us from the
Continent, where it has been employed
with marked success. Briefly, the pro-
cedure is as follows : —

A large enclosure is first planned out ; if 50
brace of birds were to be penned, a square of 75
yards would be enclosed. This pen must have
plenty of rough cover, such as partridges affect
in a wild state, both inside and out. The site
should be dry, sheltered, and little liable to
disturbance, quiet being essential to the welfare
of the birds. The pen is constructed of wire-
netting carried on stout standards 6 feet or more
in height, roofed with twine-net of a small mesh,
and has all its corners rounded off. The inmates,
presumably Hungarians, are turned into this
enclosure, cock and hen in equal numbers, about
the end of October, with their wings brailed. By
January they should be well acclimatized, and

PRESERVATION 119

more or less accustomed to the presence of the
keeper who feeds them. During the pairing and
nesting time there are two several methods of
procedure. In the first the large enclosure has
two or more small covered-in pens, each some
5 yards square, permanently attached to it, the
doors shutting off the smaller from the larger
pen being worked with a line by the man in
charge from a hut at the main entrance. As
the birds mate, each pair draws away from the
rest and seeks the seclusion of one of the smaller
pens, the door of which is then closed. The pairs
are then taken to the rearing pens, a covered-in
circle of some 20 feet in diameter being given to
each pair, where they proceed with their family
arrangements under surveillance of the keeper.
When six days or a week old the coveys are
turned out on the ground they are intended to
occupy. Moving the coveys is always rather a
troublesome business, and it simplifies matters
considerably if each rearing pen can be constructed
where the home of the covey is to be. On the
other hand, it is naturally far easier for the keeper
to look after the birds properly when all the
rearing pens are in one field ; when this is the
case the pens should be at least 20 yards apart.

In the Second method, the rearing pens are
attached to the main enclosure, shut in the same
manner when occupied by a pair, but used by the
birds to nest in and only moved after the young
are hatched. The old birds are then caught and

120 PARTRIDGES

put in a small flat basket, the young in a carrying
box, and all replaced in their pen on the ground
which is to be their home ; here they are allowed
their liberty after a day or two, as soon as they
seem to have settled down. Under this method
a number of birds usually nest in the main
enclosure, whence they are allowed to run with
their young as soon as hatched. In either case,
birds which fail to pair are turned out early in
the season in the hope that they may find mates
more to their liking in the outside world.

In this semi-domesticated condition the hens
sometimes considerably exceed the natural clutch
of eggs, many instances of one hen producing
between 30 and 40 eggs being recorded ; many
eggs are also dropped about in the large en-
closure. All eggs should be utilized, nests being
made up to 20 or 22, and superfluous eggs
used in making up wild birds' nests, or else set
under hens. About 18 to 20 chicks are as much
as one hen partridge can manage satisfactorily ;
and it should be remembered that the eggs of
birds imported from Hungary often take longer to
hatch than those of the native birds.

On the whole the French system has
much to recommend it ; the conditions
under which the birds are reared approxi-
mate fairly closely to those of nature, and
the stock thus produced can be fairly

PRESERVATION 121

trusted to be healthy and prohfic in a wild
state ; the safety of the nests is ensured
during the whole period of incubation,
and the young birds can be to some extent
safeguarded in wet and windy weather by
turning them down in dry and sheltered
spots. From a pen holding 50 brace, at
least 500 young birds should be, under
skilful management, annually produced
and turned down.

On the other side, it must be admitted
that there have been many complaints
from people who state that the system
has been given a fair trial with them and
found wanting, or at least uncertain in its
results, in some years not more than half
of the birds pairing in the pens, and all
the rest having to be turned out, probably
too late in the season to find mates and
breed in a wild state.

But one must judge by results, and the
uniform success achieved by many who
have followed this system for a number
of years would seem to point, in the case
of failure, to the fault lying, not with the

122 PARTRIDGES

system itself, but rather in the faulty
application thereof. Neglect of such
weighty considerations as finding a suit-
able site for the pen, providing proper
food for the birds, and, most important of
all, careful and skilful handling at pairing
time, would be quite enough in themselves
to account for any want of success with-
out condemning the whole system.

In any case the French system is not
one to adopt on a small scale, unless
experimentally, with a view to extending
operations should the results be favourable.
The initial expense of securing and enclos-
ing the ground is heavy, and the birds
require constant attention and supervision;
and if only 100 young birds or so are
to be produced when all goes well, the
results will hardly repay the time and
money expended. It is a system best
adapted for working on large estates,
where each of five or six beat-keepers could
have twenty rearing pens set up in suit-
able places on his own ground, receiving
the paired birds to tenant them from the

PRESERVATION 123

large central enclosures, in which from
100 to 150 brace of birds would be penned.
On such a scale the results of success
would form a very tangible quantity in
the shooting season. The whole idea of
penning partridges for laying is un-
doubtedly capable of considerable varia-
tion at the hands of skilful operators, and
it seems quite possible that semi-domesti-
cated partridges might even be induced to
abandon their monogamous habits.

The introduction of Hungarian part-
ridges into this country is a novel feature
of game preservation. When first sug-
gested some fifteen years ago, the idea
was welcomed as the panacea for all ills
on partridge ground, but of recent years
Hungarians have proved a fruitful source
of controversy. Rightly or wrongly they
have been blamed for impairing the
stamina of our native stock and introduc-
ing new forms of disease. * Hungarians'
is, of course, a very loose term, and includes
grey partridges from every part of
Germany and the Austrian Empire. It

124 PARTRIDGES

is no easy matter to pronounce finally
whether their introduction is advisable
or not ; only, when so many close and
accurate observers pronounce against them
from personal experience, a feeling of mis-
trust is naturally engendered. That their
introduction has in many instances been
attended with evil consequences is beyond
doubt, only the question remains as to
how far these failures are attributable to
mismanagement and mistakes on the part
of those responsible for turning them
down.

Hungarians are practically indis-
tinguishable from our own partridges, and
may be bought either in the egg or as
full-grown birds. While eggs involve
less initial outlay, they are probably just
as expensive in the long-run, and buying
the birds direct has the advantage of
being the more certain method of the
two, besides ensuring a change of blood
in the first year.

Particular care and attention are
absolutely essential in dealing with

PRESERVATION 125

Hungarians ; if they are bought and
turned down in a haphazard fashion,
there can be no shadow of doubt that
they will be more likely to do harm than
good. Their reputed origin should, if
possible, be verified, and some similarity
between the climate of their old and new
homes insisted on. In buying either
birds or eggs, the foreign invoice must
be checked, else it is quite possible to
buy * Hungarian' eggs which come from
no more distant land than your own
hedgerows.

The old and vicious system, still re-
commended by many game dealers, of
turning birds out on the night of their
arrival should be utterly discountenanced.
When the birds arrive they should first
be carefully examined to see that they
are all in a healthy condition, and that a
due proportion of sexes and young birds
to old is maintained. They should then
be placed in pens, which have been con-
structed in suitable spots on the ground
which they are intended to occupy. The

126 PARTRIDGES

pens should be 12 ft. long by 4 ft. wide
and 3 ft. high, covered with twine-netting
of about ^ in. mesh, with fir branches in
the centre and some shelters of boards
at the sides. Each of these pens will
hold about 4 brace comfortably, and
should be placed on good dry turf. The
birds should for the first day or so be
given water, grit, and crushed and scalded
grain, and then whole grain and plenty of
green food. They should be procured by
the end of December, and enlarged at the
end of January ; they will then be less
likely to stray than if they were turned
out before the pairing season began.
Owing to the severer changes of climate
to which they are subject in their own
country, Hungarian partridges are more
migratory in habit than our native birds,
so this is an important consideration.

It is inadvisable to handicap the new-
comers with rings on their legs for
purposes of identification ; a small hole
punched through the web of the wing
serves the purpose equally well, and in

PRESERVATION 127

no way inconveniences the bird. The
ground on which Hungarian partridges
are to be turned out must be cleared of
old birds first, or the foreigners will be
driven away as soon as they are set at
liberty. When the birds are being freed,
the pen should be left open at one end
and food scattered close by for a day or
two. On no account should any but
good healthy birds be released ; every one
that shows any signs of being in poor
health or condition must be inexorably
destroyed.

Hungarians have no peculiar qualities
in influencing a stock of partridges ; a
change of blood from ten miles away is
as efficacious as one from a thousand.
Their sole merit as compared with British
partridges lies in the fact that they are
readily procurable in a wild state from
reliable sources. To import Hungarians
in times of plenty is rather like taking
coals to Newcastle ; it is only after a
succession of bad nesting seasons that
their use seems in any way desirable.

128 PARTRIDGES

When scarcely a young partridge has
reached maturity for two or three years,
and the ground is tenanted by nothing
but hardy veterans of four and five years'
standing, it is a tempting expedient to
clear out all the old and useless stock and
start afresh with a new lot.

The right course to follow in managing
a partridge -shooting seems tlien to be
this : first, make sure that your staff is
efficient, that tlie wild birds are properly
cared for, their enemies reduced to a
minimum ; that good and sufficient nest-
ing ground is available for the breeding
stock, and that the health of the race is
ensured by a regular change of blood.
When this point has been readied, and
not till then, it may be advisable to adopt
one of the systems of higher preservation ;
but to turn out Hungarians on ground
covered with vermin or devoid of places
for nesting, or to ask a keeper who has
never really studied the habits of his own
partridges to undertake the delicate work
of successfully pairing penned birds under

A 'riME-iioNOtiJED Custom. Partridge and Pheasant using same Nest.

PRESERVATION 129

the French system, is simply waste of
money.

In the present state of agriculture
more land passes out of cultivation every
year, and farms which once carried a fine
head of game soon become useless for
purposes of sport when laid down in grass.
The fact that the occasional covey met
with on grazing land is almost always a
peculiarly large and strong one would
seem to show that partridges can do well
enough on grass if they like, but no in-
ducement will persuade them to stay in
any appreciable numbers where the land
is unbroken.

The only way to keep up a respectable
stock under these conditions is to plough
a certain proportion of the land — about
10 acres to every 200 acres of grass is
sufficient — and grow some cereal crop
for the exclusive benefit of the game.
Where fields run large, the cost of fencing
these patches is a serious consideration,
otherwise the whole expense of ploughing,
harrowing, sowing, and paying compensa-

130 PARTRIDGES

tion for the land should come to consider-
ably less than £l an acre, and the result
is almost sure to repay the outlay. Wheat
is often recommended for the purpose,
but the crop that entails least trouble in
cultivation is buckwheat. This cereal is
not particular as to soil, and will grow
almost anywhere, provided the ground is
not waterlogged. It should be sown any
time during June, about one bushel of
seed to the acre. The ground should be
lightly ploughed, thoroughly harrowed,
and rolled after being sown. The seed
may be obtained from any nurseryman,
the grey or silver hulled varieties being
the best. The grain matures in from six
weeks to two months according to season.
It is not a bad plan to sow a few strips
of Hungarian millet in the same field ;
this makes good cover, which buckwheat
does not, and gives birds a place of retreat
when disturbed. Hungarian millet may
be sown at the same time as buckwheat,
under the same process of cultivation, but
using only half a bushel of seed to the

PRESERVATION 131

acre. Buckwheat may be grown for two
or three years in succession on the same
ground without impoverishing the soil,
and is an effectual agent in cleaning dirty
land.

CHAPTER V

BY MANY HANDS

A series of notes from many estates — Summarizing present-
day methods under varying conditions — With results,
opinions, and suggestions.

As it is only some thirty or forty years
since the idea of doing something towards
improving partridge ground was first
seriously considered, it could hardly be
expected that the rules of modern pre-
servation should be capable of being
concisely and finally laid down in a few
pages.

The new system probably originated
at Elvedon, where, as long ago as 1870,
Lord Ducie's keepers were successfully
rearing large numbers of partridges by
hand, exchanging pheasant's eggs for
those of partridges with their neighbours.

132

I

BY MANY HANDS 133

Except on this one estate in Oxfordshire,
it was then the universal custom to allow
partridges to fend entirely for themselves ;
the more prominent vermin were, it is
true, probably destroyed, but beyond that,
no interest was taken in the movements
of the birds until the 1st of September
drew near, and it became a question
what sport they could be called upon to
furnish.

Partridge - driving, demanding more
birds on the ground and more certainty
of their being there when wanted than
the older methods which it supplanted,
resulted in the trial of every conceivable
means of assisting nature. These methods
of driving and preservation — the two are
almost inseparably connected — have in
some countries been almost reduced to
a complete system, but in many others,
where driving is still more or less a novel
introduction, the whole system has not
yet emerged from a rude and barbaric
infancy. At the best, modern methods
are still largely experimental in their

134 PARTRIDGES

nature, and rules which have proved suc-
cessful in one part of the country are by
no means necessarily adapted for universal
application. In such a case the opinions
of many, based on a variety of experience,
must far outweigh the humbler judgment
of one who has only the limits of his own
narrower experience from which to draw
his conclusions.

Any writer on partridge preservation
cannot fail to be largely influenced by his
own experiences at the game ; he is apt to
argue from the particular to the general,
and formulate for the guidance of others,
working under vastly different conditions,
a system which he has found successful
in his own little corner of the partridge
world.

The following series of notes from
close on twenty different estates, ranging
from the south of England to the north
of Scotland, will, it is hoped, form a sum-
mary, more or less complete, of the
various methods of to-day ; at least it
was with this end in view that they were

BY MANY HANDS 135

collected, the idea being that any one
desiring information about partridge pre-
servation should first study the notes as
a whole and get a good broad impression
of the business, and then select an estate
where the general conditions are some-
what similar to his own, and note how
others deal with the same problems which
he himself is called upon to face. The
notes from each estate are answers to a
uniform series of questions, and are in
every case the opinions of owners or
gamekeepers actively engaged in partridge
preservation.

The points on which information was
requested were as follows: — Extent of
ground, nature of soil, proportion of cul-
tivated land to grass, rotation of crops.
Nature of natural nesting ground, and
whether any artificially provided. The
question of foxes. The relative de-
merits of other vermin. The desirability
of hares, pheasants, and French partridges
on partridge ground. The system fol-
lowed in the nesting season. The question

136 PARTRIDGES

of hand -rearing partridges, or using
incubator or hens. The manner in
which change of blood is obtained.
Any diseases and their probable causes.
The size of beat given to one man.
•The question of feeding wild partridges.
The latest date on which partridges
should be shot, and the desirable size of
stock to leave. The question of replen-
ishing stock after a succession of bad
seasons. Results past and present — stock
generally increasing or the reverse ; acres
to each bird killed on the best beat and
all over the ground.

GORDONSTOUN, ELGIN

(From notes by Mr. Robert Bell, head-keeper to
Sir William Gordon-Cumming, Bart.)

Extent of ground about 7000 acres, mostly under cul-
tivation on a five years' course — corn, turnips, corn, two
years grass. Fortunately for partridges, the soil of
Morayshire must he cultivated, as it is too light to lay
down in grass. About half the ground has a light sandy
soil, the rest heavier land and clay.

On the liglit soil, which is naturally the principal
partridge ground, there is a scarcity of natural nesting
ground ; this is remedied to some extent ])y fencing off

BY MANY HANDS 137

and planting odd corners, which make good cover and
nesting ground for the birds. These plantations become
useless when the trees grow up, unless they are kept well
pruned down and thinned out.

As many of the wild nests as possible are found before
the birds begin to brood ; it is not considered safe to look
among cover afterwards. Nests are visited in the early
morning three times a week. Fifteen is the average
number of eggs laid, but nests are often, and successfully,
made up to 25 eggs. Eggs are constantly changed from
one part of the estate to another.

The ' French system ' has been employed here for
some six years ; it has proved successful from the start,
has never given any trouble, and is considered the best
way to keep up a good stock of partridges. Thirty brace
of Hungarians are bought each year in November for the
pens, and the average number of young birds over a
period of years is 360 ; in some years the broods have
averaged as high as 19. Owing to wet and cold in June
the wild birds suffered the last two seasons, but under this
system the breeding stock has been kept as good as ever.
Eggs from nests in hay-fields, roadsides, and dangerous
places are saved and utilized with the nests in the pens.

There are no foxes ; rooks are found the worst enemies,
followed in degree by rats and weasels ; hedgehogs are
very destructive. Owls and kestrels are plentiful all
along the coast, but do no harm and are not killed.
French partridges are unknown ; hares and pheasants are
not found harmful on partridge ground.

Partridges are regularly fed through winter on the
refuse from thrashing mills, which is full of small seeds,
of which the birds are particularly fond. These feeds are
put on waste pieces of ground or in young plantations
which birds frequent, and the partridges come there almost
every day.

No disease has been noticed. Each beat-keeper has
from 1500 to 1600 acres to look after.

138 PARTRIDGES

Partridge shooting should begin September 21st and
end on December 31st. Exclusive of the birds in the
pens, a brace for every 17 to 20 acres is thought a fair
stock over the whole estate ; a brace for every 10 or 12
acres is considered an average bag, and a brace for every
6 acres in very good seasons. The stock generally is
always well kept up, and is, if anything, increasing.

Before the French system was started, the average for
five years was 450 brace, all shooting being then walking
in line. For the last five years, despite bad seasons and
the ground being lightly shot, the average is just under
600 brace, all shot by driving.

PRESTON HALL, NEAR EDINBURGH
(Notes by Lord Elphinstone.)

Extent of ground 4019 acres, of which 1825 acres are
cultivated (1195 acres in grain crop, 630 acres turnips),
and 2194 acres are pasture. The soil is on the heavy side,
with some clay.

To improve the natural nesting ground, double hedges
are made in places, and any natural rough hollow or bank
wired to keep out dogs. Every keeper has a chart of his
beat and marks down all the nests he can find. Nests are
visited once a day, generally between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m.,
occasionally about 4 p.m.

Average number of eggs per nest : on first beat, 15 ;
second beat, 14 ; third beat, 14 ; fourth beat, 14. Some birds
lay as many as 17. Some eggs are lifted and put in other
nests. Personally I would rather change eggs tlian put
down Hungarians. I once put down 100 brace of Hun-
garians, and think they did good, but only by keeping
them six weeks or so in pheasantries, and getting them
strong and liealthy, and less wild. In my opinion, im-
porters of Hungarians are wrong in advising buyers to
turn them out the same night they arrive.

BY MANY HANDS 139

There are practically no foxes ; rooks are undoubtedly
the worst enemies here.

There are no French partridges. My personal opinion
is that partridges always do better where there is no big
quantity of hares or pheasants. Partridges are fed in
hard weather.

In this country partridges are, I think, singularly
healthy as a rule, a bad year being always directly trace-
able to a cold and wet season, or other adverse climatic
conditions when hatching or soon after. Occasionally we
have severe mortality from gapes.

Each man has 1000 acres to look after.

Personally, I do not like to shoot partridges after the
end of December. I believe that, even in bad years,
partridges should be driven and shot lightly.

Our stock is certainly not diminishing ; in fact, I think
it is increasing all over the Lothians. In our best year,
1906, we killed 513, 303, 892 birds— 604 brace in 2^ days.
The third day we were stopped first drive after lunch by
a thick fog, or would have easily killed 300 brace.

CHARTERHALL, BERWICKSHIRE
(Notes by Colonel A. Trotter.)

6000 acres ; loam soil ; two-thirds cultivated on a five-
year shift.

The natural nesting ground is improved by fencing
strips of land along the hedges (no nests in these first
season, last year several). Artificial nesting places made
in most hedges and alongside walls, by laying down thorn
branches, etc., answer their purpose.

Wire-netting erected to keep sheep and stock from
grazing into the fence, thereby retaining the summer
roughness.

All nests possible to find are noted. Nests are visited

140 PARTRIDGES

regularly as often as possible, in the height of the nesting
season thrice a week. The average number is about 16
eggs to the nest. Eggs are lifted from insecure or for-
saken nests and added to others.

Eggs are put into the incubator or under bantams when
the bird deserts while sitting ; these eggs, when hatched,
are taken from the incubator or bantam and added to
other broods which are known to be hatching off.

The following is one of many examples : A bird sitting
on her nest was found dead and cold near the nest ; she
should have hatched oft" the following day. The eggs
were put into the incubator, 17 came out and were put
down with a brood that hatched off the same day.

No partridges are hand-reared. Eggs are changed to
a certain extent from different parts of the estate.

In 1906, 100 brace of Hungarians were turned out, and
in 1907, 20 brace. In 1908, 1909, and 1910, 500, 300, and
200 Hungarian eggs respectively were purchased through
the Egg Guild Association, and distributed among nests.

There are foxes, but they have not given trouble to
any extent latterly, owing to mange having killed a
great many. Several devices have been tried to frustrate
the foxes, such as : —

(a) Wire entanglement, made of thin wire about 2 feet
high, placed round the nest and some distance from it.
Result, wires broken and bird killed by fox.

(6) Placing old iron and sprung traps round the nest.
Result, so far as known, to a certain extent successful.

(c) Reynardine on all nests on roadsides, sprinkled
round the nest and along the hedge on either side ; by
this means we think that dogs, etc., coming along the
road get the scent and follow the trail, which, leading at
some distance round the nest, leaves it undisturbed. On
one occasion we sprinkled reynardine on a sitting pheasant,
and within two days she was taken by a fox. Wc have
also tried liquid carbolic instead of reynardine.

(d) Luminous paint on iron pins, such as are used in

BY MANY HANDS 141

the garden for naming plants ; placed at a distance from
the nest.

Our vermin in order of precedence at nesting time are
rooks, rats, hedgehogs, stoats, cats, and moles. The cats
frequent the roads, hut their presence is easily detected
by their footprints, and steps taken accordingly. Moles
have given a certain amount of trouble by working under
the nests and letting the eggs down. To remedy this,
insert rags soaked in carbolic or reynardine in the runs
and remake the nest.

Owls are numerous, and kestrels fairly plentiful ;

neither are found to do any harm, and both are preserved.

Hares are not found harmful : close on a hundred have

been killed in one day's partridge-driving. Pheasants I

consider harmful and should be kept within limits. They

interfere with partridges by laying in their nests, and

leaving the eggs uncovered, even if they do not altogether

drive away the partridge. We rear no pheasants here now.

Partridges are fed in hard weather.

Enteric in a mild form appeared in 1909, and again in

July and August 1910. Gapes has been bad, and reduced

the size of the coveys considerably before the shooting

season.

The beat-keepers have each 1500 acres to look after.
No partridges are shot after the first week in November.

We leave as large a stock as possible, and have not
experienced a bad season since we commenced preserving.
The -twenty-eight years from 1877 to 1904 give an
average of 305 brace annually. In 1905 driving com-
menced, and the average of the last six years is 430 brace.
No pheasants have been reared since 1906, and the last
three seasons average 675 brace for about nine days'
shooting. The present year is the best so far recorded,
2060 partridges having been killed, being one bird to
3 acres on the best beat, and one bird to 4 acres all over
the ground.

142 PARTRIDGES

BLACKADDER, BERWICKSHIRE

(Notes by Sir George Houstoun Boswall, Bart.)

5000 acres, of a clay soil, with three-fifths cultivated
on a four years' course, and two-fifths grass. A large
number of double fences make excellent nesting ground,
but, unfortunately, the partridges always seem to prefer
the roadsides. I put this down entirely to their liking
for dust and grit, and am trying to obviate this by making
places in the double hedges where they can take their
dust baths.

I have all nests found as far as possible, and consider
that they should be visited once a day when the bird is
sitting ; there is then some chance of saving the eggs if
anything has happened. Our nests average about 17
eggs. A lot of eggs are lifted from impossible places
and put into other nests. Eggs are also changed from
one side of the place to another. The incubator is not
used. Some partridges were reared under the French
system, which was most successful, but as we only had
ten pens, it was not worth the trouble, as even if all ten
coveys were reared, the man that looked after them would
be, in my opinion, far better employed outside. I put
in a lot of Hungarian eggs in 1909 and 1910, but shall
not do so this year.

W^e always have some foxes, and they take a certain
number of birds off their nests. We remove the eggs
to other nests. Hedgehogs, rats, and rooks are certainly
our worst vermin ; owls and kestrels I do not consider
harmful to partridges. Hedgehogs I consider the worst
egg-stealers of all, as they will go all up a fence and
never miss a nest. We have many hares, but do not find
they do any harm. Pheasants would do mischief by
laying in partridge nests, were the nests not visited and
their eggs removed.

BY MANY HANDS 143

In 1909 and 1910, though our best years, a number
of birds died from gapes and from some other disease,
which I presume to have been a form of enteritis. I put
this down to the evil influence of the Hungarian eggs,
and possibly to the now prevalent practice of putting
chickens on the stubbles. We feed our partridges with
hay-seed when there is deep snow.

Our beats are roughly 1000 acres each. In an open
season I never shoot any partridges after 31st December,
as so many have already paired, and these are just the
ones which would get shot.

I regret to say that I do not yet know what would be
too large a stock to leave on the ground. For the last
four years the stock and the bags have been steadily
increasing, which is entirely due to (1) driving only, (2)
killing vermin, (3) finding and looking after the nests.
1910 was our best year, when we killed 800 brace. We
could have shot many more, but only had four days'
shooting with six guns, and a few odd days, and I now
think that there is as big a stock on the ground as it
will carry. We have now had three very good seasons
running.

LOGAN, MULL OF GALLOWAY

(Notes by Mr. M^ Vicar, head-keeper to
Kenneth M'Douall, Esq.)

The Logan shootings are some 15,000 acres in extent,
the soil for the most part of a light loam, sandy in some
parts, and with occasional stretches of clay. Tillage and
permanent grass are about equal in area, the land being
worked on a six years' system of rotation — corn, turnips,
corn, and three years in grass.

On part of the ground the natural nesting ground is
good, mostly in the form of rough patches of whin and
hedgerows, but over a large proportion of the estate bare

144 PARTRIDGES

stone walls take the place of hedges, especially on the west
and most exposed side to prevailing winds. Such ground
is improved by putting down small patches of artificial
cover close to the walls in likely nesting places.

A keeper who does his duty should know (as nearly as
possible) all the game nests on his beat, and should visit
each twice a week, in the afternoon, at which time he is
least liable to cause disturbance to the birds while laying,
though when incubation begins any time will suit. Nests
on public roadsides and other dangerously exposed places
should be taken up and distributed among other nests.

We do not hand-rear partridges here in a general way.
One season, however, we purchased 800 eggs from Southern
Germany and reared about 160. I used bantams as fosters,
and when the chicks were a fortnight old they were
allowed to roam in fine weather with their several fosters
during the day, and herded back to their coops in the
evening. The young stock did remarkably well on this
system, but of course it requires considerable attention.
T have also reared successfully by turning down the birds,
fosters and all, into oats or other grain when three weeks
old, continuing the feeding along the headland for a time
after their removal. Light soil is important on the rear-
ing field, and a couple of furrows ploughed up about every
20 yards give shelter in wet weather, also grit and basking
ground, all of them important considerations.

I have tried Hungarians for change of blood, and must
admit that there were decided traces of improvement on
the beats where they were turned down : several were
shot the next season out of large broods on the same
ground, and with the marking rings still on their legs.
Still there is no reason, evident to me, why British eggs
or live birds from a distance should not be as efficacious in
improving degenerated stock.

While on the subject of inbreeding, I may mention that
I once reared large numbers of Pit Games (fighters) for
six successive years with the best results. Yet these birds

" Ware Chase."

BY MANY HANDS 145

had been inbred for 40 years without a single off cross.
Their courage in the pit was perfect, they were very
fast, and absolutely dead game. I never met with a
single runner in this strain, and I witnessed (this in a
whisper) many great mains against them in the United
States.

This seems to prove the extent to which inbreeding can
be carried without any apparent deterioration. On the
contrary, this strain was improved, or rather maintained
its qualities by inbreeding, for when crossed with other
dead game strains there was always a certain percentage
of runners.

It appears to me that the same law must apply to
certain game birds, especially those which do not spread
over a wide area, but cling to the spot where they were
born. Nature must have her own protective methods
against the extinction of species, which must of a necessity
breed and interbreed for ages.

There hre no foxes ; the climate is our worst enemy
here, heavy rainstorms in July generally destroying large
numbers of partridges. The common rook I find a good
second, but as they only take eggs, much can be done to
protect exposed nests, by putting pieces of brushwood
round the nest, but only after incubation has started.

I have not found the owls hurtful to game, though I
have heard from reliable sources that they are more or
less destructive in some localities. Kestrels generally I
consider harmless, I have known occasional attacks and
an odd chick taken at the coops, but the gun usually
ended the matter in a day or two.

1 have visited scores of kestrels' nests, and only very
rarely found the remains of young- game.

In over forty years' experience in game-keeping in many
parts I have never been able to prove that the hedgehog
takes eggs, but I am open to conviction on this matter.
In a general way I do not consider eitlier pheasants or
hares harmful to partridges, though where pheasants are

10

146 PARTRIDGES

extensively raised, special attention is necessary to pre-
vent their free usurpation of partridge territory.

We only feed our birds during heavy snows, and
the occasion has only arisen twice in the last twelve
years.

The only bad disease we suffer from here is brought on
by bad weather. The symptoms were very similar to those
of enteritis, and autopsy showed that the birds had eaten
certain grass seeds, usually found in very wet seasons, and
inducing a form of enteritis. This disease swept off a
great number of young birds, mostly when fully half-
grown. I caught many of them which, though unable to
fly, were otherwise in fair condition. The action of this
trouble was slow, as birds I caught and marked showed
little change when caught again some days later.

Though I have no proof that either dips or artificial
manures are injurious to game, I have a strong suspicion
that certain brands are responsible for the high death-rate
prevailing in some parts of England.

One of the Logan men has a beat of 8000 acres,
another one of 2000, the remaining beats being about 1000
acres each, which latter figure I consider quite suflScient
for a good man to look after in good partridge country
containing many villages.

Our regular shooting ends in December, giving the
keeper a month in which to decide how his stock stands,
and whether or not another short day can be had without
undue reduction of his breeding stock. The desirable
breeding stock varies largely on different ground ; on
grass-lands the birds will not increase beyond a certain
figure. Generally, where all conditions are favourable, I
would estimate that a brace of birds to every 3 acres is
the maximum breeding stock to leave on the ground by
January 1st. Our stock here decreased greatly in recent
years, owing to a succession of wet seasons. In 1910 there
was a marked improvement, and now we have a capital
stock of healthy birds.

BY MANY HANDS 147

WELBECK ABBEY, NOTTS
(Notes by Captain H. Heathcoat Amory.)

Our extent of partridge ground altogether is about
12,000 acres. Of course a lot of this is liardly sliot over,
and carries a very small stock on it. It is practically all
cultivated. Soil varies very much in different parts of the
estate, one side being sandy, the other heavy clay.

Rotation of Crops. — Average four. years' shift, but on
heavy land some farmers go five years.

Nesting ground hedgerows chiefly, the only artificial
provided being the remises. There are five remises on the
whole estate. On the best beat two — one about 11 acres,
and one about 4. They consist of ground wired in, wire-
netting 8 to 10 feet high, 4 to 5 inch mesh at the bottom,
so as to allow the young birds to get through. Inside a
belt of shrubs, or spruce and Scotch fir, according to suit-
ability of ground, about 15 yards broad. Interior ones to
be divided up into four divisions — (1) turnips, (2) barley,
(3) first year layer, (4) second year layer. The only
advantage for nesting is that the birds are safe from foxes,
otherwise they don't use them for nesting any more than
outside ; in fact I think we find more nests in the hedges
than we do in the remises.

Nesting Season. — All nests should be found if possible
and visited once a day. Average number of eggs about
18 to the nest. Eggs are lifted from the outside of the
estate and brought into the centre to fill up nests to 20
or 22 eggs, which works well, and often has the advantage
of changing the blood to a certain extent. No eggs
incubated at all here, and no partridges hand-reared.

We have had very little disease here. Our only
trouble has been the wet in June, which has drowned the
young birds. On one part of the estate, where there are a
lot of flood meadows watered by sewage, we have had a
certain amount of dysentery among the old birds. This is

148 PARTRIDGES

probably caused by the sewage bringing up the young
grass earlier on these meadows than in other places, and
the birds feeding on it.

Hungarians are turned down every year, on an average
about 400 l)race of Hungarians for the whole estate.
Some we pen for a short period, and some are turned out
straight from the baskets through the hedges ; it all
•depends on the state in which the birds arrive. If they
look well and healthy, they are turned straight out, but if
they appear to have suffered from the journey, then they
are penned for a few days. As a rule we find the birds
healthy and strong, but we always very much prefer our
own birds for stock. They are imported straight from the
Continent.

We have separate keepers for pheasants and partridges,
the same man does not look after both. Our best beat is
rather over 1000 acres. On it we have one beat man, and
a man and a boy with him, but of course this probably
would not be necessary in many counties ; but as we are
in the middle of a colliery district, we must have plenty
of men to do the watching.

Foxes. — A fair number, but not troubled very much by
them, as on the side of the best partridge beat it is not
hunted, and therefore any litters found on that part of
the estate are moved.

Vermin. — Worst enemies rats and stoats. Owls and
kestrels not bad for partridges. Hedgehogs are bad e^^-
stealers.

Hares. — Too many are bad on a partridge beat, as they
are continually running in the hedgerows and disturbing
nests. Pheasants not desirable, as they often lay in
partridge nests, and the length of incubation for pheasant
and partridge eggs is not the same. French partridges
do not do well on cultivated ground, and also do not
become sufficiently numerous to do any harm. They do
better on rough heavy land. They are good birds for
driving.

BY MANY HANDS 149

Partridges ought to be fed in hard weather^ principally
with wheat. Partridge-shooting, if possible, should end by
the second week of November. Of course, if possible, it is
good to leave a brace of birds to the acre for stock, but
practically one thinks the ground well stocked if you have
a brace to 3 or 4 acres.

There is no doubt that too many old birds on a beat is
a very bad thing, and I believe the best thing to do is to
kill down your stock of old birds fairly well and re-stock
with Hungarians.

Our best day at Welbeck was in 1906, when we killed
739 brace on the Blue Barn beat, some 1000 to 1200 acres in
extent, and of a light and sandy soil. That year the total
bag for this beat was 1669 partridges. Since then, owing
to the wet summers, we have only shot lightly, but there
is a good stock on the ground, and with a good breeding
season we ought to do as well as ever.

PATSHULL, STAFFORDSHIRE
(Notes by the Hon. G. Legge.)

About 4000 acres, of which nearly 1000 is grass or
plantations. The rotation of crops is on a four years'
course, and barley is grown extensively.

Ninety per cent of the birds nest in the hedgerows ; no
artificial nesting places are provided, though scattered
young plantations afford good nesting ground.

I certainly believe in finding all nests possible, especially
in a fox country. They should be visited frequently until
the bird has been sitting for eight or ten days, after which
they should be seen every day ; then, if the bird has been
put off through any cause, the eggs can often be saved
before they get cold. They are then added to nests of
birds which have been sitting for same length of time, or,
failing them, put in the incubator, and, when hatched,
taken out and put to an old bird with young of the same

150 PARTRIDGES

age. This latter course was successfully adopted with
three or four nests this year. Eggs laid in unsafe or un-
desirable places are always lifted, and nests in good
situations made up to 20 or 22 with them.

I believe in changing eggs. Here we change every
year with three other estates widely separated, and also
between different beats on the estate. This mixes the
bloody even if no shooting is done owing to a bad season.

I can see no use in turning down Hungarians unless
the stock is very low and you want to make it up to a
certain number per acre. We have not enough French
partridges or hares to interfere with the grey partridges ;
pheasants we only find a nuisance when they lay in
partridge nests. We only feed the partridges in very
severe winters.

Foxes are the worst enemies to the partridge here ; but
it is by no means every fox that interferes with the birds.
Judging from my own experience, I should say that
nothing will keep a fox away from partridge nests once
that individual fox has taken to hunting the hedgerows
for nests. Probably the best protection to nests are old
unset traps put down near the nest and well handled once
or twice every week. After foxes, our worst enemies are
rats and stoats, then hedgehogs, and every year we lose
two or three nests from moles burrowing underneath and
letting the eggs down into the run. Rooks do a certain
amount of harm in late or dry seasons, or where nests are
exposed. I am convinced that hedgehogs take eggs ; bait
a trap with partridge eggs and see what you catch at it.
Owls do no harm to nesting birds here, nor have I seen or
heard of an owl doing harm to young birds. Individual
kestrels may do a certain amount of harm, but not enough
to justify their being killed. Though not exactly coming
under the head of vermin, fowls on the stubbles are most
injurious to partridges.

The only time our birds suffered from disease was in
1908, when several coveys were found dead, old and

BY MANY HANDS 151

young together, when the corn was cut, but all in too
advanced a stage of decomposition to admit of a post
mortem.

In summer, when a spell of dry weather checks the
growth of barley and wheat, the ground becomes covered
with a tangled mass of weed locally known as ^ mountain
flax.' Before flowering, the buds of the flax are covered
with a gummy substance, not unlike that found on the
buds of the horse-chestnut. At this time it is most
dangerous to game. It was very bad with us in the dry
spell of July 1910, and it was noticeable how young birds
grew darker in colour in and around the fields where the
flax grew thickest.

There was a brood of young pheasants, 13 in number,
which flourished in the corner of a barley-field till the
beginning of July. They then began to grow darker in
colour, and could only fly with great efi'ort when flushed.
Some were picked up dead, and were found to have their
feathers all stuck together, just as though they had been
dipped in treacle. When last seen, only two young birds
remained with the hen, and their fate was uncertain. In
many other places, where the flax was thick, broods were
seen in the same condition, and several young birds picked
up dead. Some old hen pheasants looked quite black,
but no old birds were known to have died from this cause.
Though pheasants only were observed in this condition,
partridges on the same ground must doubtless have also
suiFered. As soon as the flax flowers the gum disappears,
and the surviving birds resume their normal colour.

Each beat-keeper can manage 1500 acres in this country ;
foxes give him a lot of extra work.

I would say that a brace to every 6 or 7 acres in this
country is a good stock.

In old days when partridges were walked up and shot
most days in September, the annual bags were much the
same as they are now, when two weeks' driving takes place
in the year — one day on each beat.

152 PARTRIDGES

Since driviug commenced in 1898, 1 think our stock
increased steadily till 1905, since when the weather has
been all against us. In 1905, our best year since driving
began, we killed 1600 partridges, shooting over each beat
once only ; our best day that year was 156 brace. A large
stock was left, perhaps too large, but the following three
years were the worst on record, and very few birds were
killed, with tlie view of keeping up a sufficient stock.
This year (1910) we have left a better stock than ever
before, excepting perhaps the great year 1905.

STAPLETON, SHROPSHIRE
(Notes by R. Ll. Purcell Llewellin, Esq.)

It would be fallacious to take my estate as an example,
because I sold nine-tenths of it three years ago, and have
only kept about 1000 acres. In days before the steady
decrease of partridges began, I have commonly killed from
20 to 25 brace in a short day, shooting alone over setters.
If I had, like my neighbours, shot with a large party of
six guns or more and a number of beaters, I could have
killed 60 or 70 brace or more ; now, even if I tried, I
could not get more tban ten or a dozen brace.

This part of the country is ideal partridge land, light,
loamy, turnip and barley soil ; half arable, half pasture,
plenty of brooks for water, and a dry soil. The nesting
is chiefly in the thorn hedges. There is no rough or
uncultivated land, as all is well farmed. The worst vermin
are foxes, which are highly preserved. Farmers' dogs
are a nuisance too ; wherever a man goes, nine times out
of ten a sheep-dog (collie) follows, and even when hoeing
turnips the dog is there, often occupying himself in the
hedges. There are also collieries not more tlian a couple
of miles off, and tliere is sometimes not a little poaching.
The country is well keepered, the keepers are good, the

BY MANY HANDS 153

nests are found and watclied. Until this year no Hun-
garians have been turned down in this district.

But all these conditions — foxes, collieries, collies — have
been the same for years (and I can remember this part for
thirty-six years), yet until the last five years we never
heard complaints about any steady decrease of the stock.
Since of recent years I liave spared my partridges, only
shooting a few for the use of the house, 1 can only speak
for my neighbours. They also have spared their birds to
some extent, but as none of them (following the usual
style nowadays) ever use a pointer or a setter, they are
bound to go out in a party. Yet even with their way of
doing it, their bags have been surprisingly small. On one
estate where years ago 100 and 150 brace were easily killed
in a day, I have not heard of more than 19 brace being
killed with six or seven guns. I did hear of 30 brace
being killed there in 1909 on one day, but was told that
nearly the whole estate was driven to do that, and seeing
that this comprises some 8000 acres, it is easy to calculate
how things are.

The estate on the other side is in much the same con-
dition. The owner is no dog-man, and drives, and I hear
his birds are just as bad, about 19 brace being his best
day ; years ago they thought it a poor day when they did
not kill 70 brace. From two other neighbouring places
comes the same story ; all this, including my own land,
which lies in the centre, comprises some 30,000 acres, and
I know things are much the same all over the West Mid-
lands and A\^ales.

As to the cause of this steady decrease, I formed a
theory, which time has only served to strengthen, that
the partridges are poisoned (not intentionally) by the
farmer through the use of new ^pickles' for grain, spray-
ing materials, and artificial land dressings.

I waited while things went from bad to worse, wonder-
ing at the apathy of sportsmen, and hoping that some
abler pen than mine would take up the subject, but no

154 PARTRIDGES

one did, and so I started the correspondence in the
Field.

I held a trump card to prove my case in a letter from
the editor, saying that arsenic had been found in birds
sent to his office for investigation. But that editor died,
and his successor closed the correspondence before the
matter was settled.

Meantime, while all admit the decrease of partridges,
maiiy continue to give the old reasons as the cause. Bad
weather in the nesting season, a succession of unfavourable
years, overshooting, egg-stealing, poaching, and vermin
are all advanced by different people as the true cause.
But none of these account in any way for the steady
diminution in the stock of partridges between the close of
one shooting year and the ensuing nesting season, the old
birds getting fewer and fewer before the breeding time,
many being picked up dead, and otliers continually seen
in a wasting condition and hardly able to fly. Nor would
any or all of these reasons serve to account for arsenic
found in birds picked up dead and sent for examination.

The cause of all the trouble must be a new one, as the
disaster is ; if the trouble is to be stopped, the old reasons
advanced to account for it must be abandoned, new ones
sought, and preventive measures undertaken.

PICKENHAM, NORFOLK
(Notes by G. W. Taylor, Esq.)

Five thousand acres, varying in quality from light land
that will pay for cultivation up to the best mixed soils —
200 acres woodland, 600 permanent grass, 4300 acres
under the plough.

The banks and hedges are very good natural nesting
ground, and there are 150 acres of heath and bracken
(permanent sheep pasture). On the big and open fields

BY MANY HANDS 155

about 40 acres of belts and })room covers for nesting have
been planted, which are also found most useful for shelter.
The size of beats vary from 700 to 1500 acres.

It is quite impossible to find every nest, and no good
purpose can be served by hunting large fields and corn-
fields. The nests most likely to be attacked are those on
the bank and hedgerows. In a dry season the rooks take
several nests in the hay and corn-fields, as eggs get
exposed for want of cover. At Pickenham in some years
I believe 85% of the nests have been found, but this is
unusual, 70% being nearer the average. This last season,
which was wet and the growth consequently rank, I can
quite believe that 60% to 65% would represent the pro-
portion of nests found. The nests as soon as found should,
if possible, be visited daily by the beat-keeper, who should
thoroughly examine the nest if things do not appear
normal ; he should know how each bird is laying to her
nest, or if two lay to one nest. We have great trouble
with moles that run the fences and disturb the birds on
their nests ; I have actually lost eggs in mole runs, though
I do not think that the mole eats them. One year I
should have lost 30% of the nests on the estate by moles,
if they had not been regularly visited.

On a large beat a keeper must get round his nests when
he can : I have known 300 nests on one beat at Pickenham
(divided into 5 beats), and it takes a man nearly two days
to get round the number. There is one time when I
consider it fatal for any one, including the beat-keeper, to
go near the nest. For three days after the bird has made
up her nest, which you can always tell by the eggs being
exposed, it is best to keep well away, for, if flushed off
during this period, it is a 100 to 1 chance against the bird
returning and the eggs are all spoilt.

If at any time a keeper flushes a bird ofi" a nest during
the first week of incubation, it is best to put false eggs in
the nest and keep the real eggs under a hen till he can
find the bird has come back to the nest, and then wait till

156 PARTRIDGES

she is off to feed and replace the eggs. The average
all round at Pickenham for years has been nearly 16
eggs in a nest, and the hatch 14. The incubator is
always useful, but use it sparingly, and always remember
in rearing partridges that, given a decent season, you
will never bring up as many chicks as the wild bird will
herself. If you rear partridges at all, rear under hens ;
but I would never recommend rearing on a large scale.

Change eggs — change, change, change. Change every
year from one side of the estate to the other, and change
a large proportion with a not too near neighbour wherever
possible. This changing of eggs is going to be the solution
of a lot of our trouble on the driving grounds, where
coveys are sometimes never broken up. It involves an
immense amount of labour, but is well worth it, and it
would be ideal if every partridge on an estate could
sit on —

^ eggs from other corner of estate.
\ eggs exchanged with neighbours (say 20 miles off).
^ her own eggs.
I have the greatest mistrust of Hungarians, and have
seen very bad results in my neighbourhood. Not actually
being in a hunting country, we are not much troubled by
foxes ; occasionally in spring great damage is done by
them to paired partridges. Our worst vermin are stoats,
rats, and hedgehogs. The big tawny owl is troublesome
at times ; other owls should be encouraged, with perhaps
the exception of the little owl, a bird we have not got
here, but which I understand hunts by night and day,
and is very troublesome in the Midlands. Kestrels are
harmless, except on a rearing field, where at times they
play havoc, especially if they have their nest handy. 1
consider the hedgehog one of the worst enemies of partridge
eggs ; he will take them at all times, and will occasionally
destroy quite a young bird.

We kill about 1000 hares every year, and have never
found them harmful on the partridge ground. Where

BY MANY HANDS 157

a large stock of partridges is required^ the out or wild
pheasants must be kept in bounds as regards numl)ers.
The bulk of the hens left will cling to the woods and
feed on the rides and not go far afield to nest. On our
5000 acres 1 consider 200 out hens the maximum that
should be left. The ground will only carry a certain
head of winged game, and if the wild pheasants are suc-
cessful in bringing up their broods^ it will be at the
expense of the partridges, where these are numerous. The
ideal partridge ground would be denuded of pheasants ;
here I always leave a small stock of pheasants all over
the estate, as driving in October (we never shoot till
then) they give splendid shots out of turnip-fields, espe-
cially in a wind. Pheasants are always more harmful to
partridges on those estates where their first lots of eggs
are collected for the estate rearing fields, as they then
nest later and farther afield from the main woods, and
often disturb, and indeed appropriate, the nests of part-
ridges that are laying and sometimes sitting. When
there is deep snow on the ground, we run a plough
along the sunny side of a fence and feed the partridges
with barley or wheat.

With regard to disease, gapes is the chief trouble
always ; enteric we have also at times ; both are very
diflficult to combat, and are generally the result of un-
seasonable weather. On my own farm (1300 acres) I
use no artificial manure to speak of, and yet I am no
better off as regards disease than my neighbours.

Our beats vary in size from 700 to 1500 acres, the
difference depending on the character of ground and
nesting space, the quantity of stock left, and whether
near a preserved area or the reverse. The right time to
stop shooting depends on the season, but I never care
about shooting partridges in January if the weather is
open. I think the maximum stock, under the most favour-
able conditions, that can be usefully left is a brace to
every 4 or 5 acres. I have left this amount and had over

158 PARTRIDGES

10,000 birds hatch out, but wet seasons never gave me
the chance of seeing- if the ground could carry this number.

I think the ground should be shot over once, however
bad the year. If things are desperate, I go out on Sep-
tember 1st and walk up the coveys, killing the okl birds
and sparing all the young. I have left a good stock every
year, but owing to bad seasons this is getting old and
weak. The stock generally is decreasing for the same
reason.

In 1905 we killed 4123 partridges in eight days oif 5000
acres, and in the same year 1350 partridges in two days off
800 acres.

WITCHINGHAM HALL, NORWICH
(Notes by W. Barry, Esq.)

The extent of partridge ground on which my observa-
tions are based consists roughly of about 4000 acres.
The soil is mostly a light, sandy loam, none of it very
heavy ground. It is nearly all cultivated land, with a
few strips of old pasture intersecting it. The rotation
of crops is on the four years' system — wheat, roots, barley,
hay.

We have plenty of hedgerows for nesting. I have also
made a good many belts for birds to nest in, consisting
of furze, birch, broom, and hazel. These have to be kept
low and thin, otherwise partridges will not nest in them.
I generally throw up a bank with a thorn hedge on top
of it on each side of the belt, for shelter and dusting
purposes. I believe in finding every nest ; the keepers
visit them every two days. I attach the greatest
importance to this ; in no other way can the nests be
properly preserved. If a nest is destroyed, traps are at
once set and the vermin caught before it can do more
damage. If the nests were not watched, a stoat would
clear off nest after nest within a very short time. Another

BY MANY HANDS 159

advantage of finding' all the nests possible is that by the
end of June you can estimate the number of your breed-
ing stock. I lift very few eggs, practically only those in
very dangerous positions or deserted. These I place in
nests round corn-fields and make them up to 21.

I believe in changing the eggs as much as possible,
and especially in getting eggs from a distance and from
bad, heavy partridge grounds. Personally I am not in
favour of turning down Hungarians, and have never
done so.

We suffer severe losses among our young birds from
the machines in the hay harvest. Here every fourth field
is a hay-field, and cut, as a rule, during the last ten days
of June. If the season is a late one, as generally happens,
most of the young birds are only a few days old and prac-
tically unable to get out of the way. The result is that
enormous numbers are killed in spite of every precaution.
I get my farmers to leave the last acre, and the keepers
cut it with scythes early the next morning ; but if the
night is wet or cold, and the old birds have not come back,
many of the little ones die. It is very necessary to have
keepers in the fields whilst they are being cut. Of course,
if the farmers could be persuaded to begin cutting in the
middle of the field and work outwards, all would be well,
as the old birds would gradually lead the young ones to
the outsides ; but I have been quite unable to persuade
my farmers to do this. Numbers of old as well as young
birds get killed or mutilated during the hay-cutting, and
altogether I lose hundreds of birds during this fortnight.
The young ones that escape also receive a check in being
deprived of their food in the grass-fields. There is, in my
opinion, far more food there than in the corn.

Of course in an early season — and, in my experience,
all the good years are early ones — the birds, or a good
proportion of them, are a fortnight older and can fly or
run away from the machines. In that last very bad season
all the young birds that survived here were the early

160 PARTRIDGES

ones, which had sufficient stamina to resist the rain and
cold winds which set in at the end of June.

We also suffer from the increasing custom of putting
poultry down on the stubbles, a custom which deprives
the partridges of food and quiet, and is undoubtedly
shockingly bad for preservation.

There are no foxes. Rats, stoats and cats are my worst
enemies. Owls and kestrels do me no harm. Hedgehogs
are harmful ; they destroy partridge eggs, especially just
before the eggs are ready to hatch. I know of a score
of cases when hedgehogs have eaten the eggs and have
been found fast asleep in the nests.

I do not consider French partridges at all harmful to
Englisli partridges. Here they live together very amic-
ably, and I have seen a French and an English bird sitting
on their nests within a yard of each other. I encourage
Frenchmen as much as possible. Hares, within modera-
tion, do no harm. Pheasants need to be carefully watched
on a partridge beat in nesting time. They worry the
partridges by driving them off and laying their eggs in
the nests. The pheasant eggs must be removed and the
pheasant frightened as much as possible to prevent her
going back to the nest to lay. My keepers try to find
the pheasant on the nest and flush her off with much
noise ; occasionally they catch her and carry her a few
hundred yards away before letting her go. With the
exception of being a nuisance in the nesting season I do
not think that a moderate stock of pheasants does any
liarm on a partridge beat. If my sole object, however,
was to have a large stock of partridges, I would do away
with pheasants altogether on that particular ground.

In hard weather, severe frosts, and prolonged snow, I
feed the birds by the hedgerows, in the larger fields, or in
any pits, plantations, etc., to which they are in the habit of
resorting.

With the exception of gapes, I am not troubled with
any special form of disease, but after every wet season I

BY MANY HANDS IGl

lose a certain number of hen birds. I imagine they get
chilled and poor from continual sitting in wet weather,
and then contract lung diseases. My own opinion, such
as it is, is that the artificial forms of manure are not harm-
ful. A friend of mine, who has one of the best partridge
manors in Norfolk, keeps in his own hands 1000 acres
of land on which no artificial manures have been used for
the last three or four years. The birds, however, on this
land have done no better than on the adjoining ground,
where artificial manures are used.

Size of Beat. — A good deal depends on the lie of the
ground, whether it is a straggling beat intersected by
villages, etc. If the beat is compact, and in one block, I
consider that a really good keen keeper can look after
1500 acres.

My stock was biggest in 1905. We have had no good
year in Norfolk since, although 1908 was fair. The last
two years have been unusually bad, and in consequence
the stock of young birds is small. In 1905 I only had
3200 acres of shooting, and on this 2400 birds were killed
and a very large stock left. This acreage included 130
acres of wood and a 300-acre farm, which was rented for
the first time, and was not seriously driven or shot over.

WEETING HALL, BRANDON, NORFOLK
(Notes by C. Cockburn, Esq.)

Soil and Cultivation. — Extent of ground 8000 acres, only
300 acres grass, the rest arable and bracken. The soil is
light and sandy, chalk and flint.

Nesting Ground. — The partridges nest in the corn, sain-
foin, and clover, also at the edges of the woods ; there are
no hedges. I always have keepers walking ahead of the
mower when the sainfoin, etc., are being cut ; if they are
cut early, many scores of nests are cut out and smashed.

Nesting Season. — If you find tlie nests and visit them

11

162 PARTRIDGES

frequently, you generally act as a guide-post to egg-stealers.
In this respect keepers must exercise great caution ; nests
should not be visited when the dew is on, or when very
wetj or in long grass, when the keeper's tracks are visible.

Taking early nests and late nests, I think the average
number of eggs will be about 15. I once counted 84
nests and that is what they averaged, the highest having
23 eggs and the lowest 5. I always pick up a few part-
ridge eggs from ruined nests and put them in an incubator ;
if they are not sat on, I always put them in other nests if
possible. I have no system for rearing partridges beyond
getting bantams or small hens as foster-mothers.

Change of Blood. — I change eggs with friends every year.
I used to turn out from (300 to 500 brace of Hungarians
every year, but gave it up five years ago, as I found my
birds were getting weaker, and were dying in small
numbers practically all the year round. In old days the
English partridge was as tough and sturdy a bird as
existed, and seemed able to stand anything ; but now the
partridges are much more weakly, they do not weigh as
much, and I do not think their eggs hatch out as well as
they used to twelve to fifteen years ago.

Vermin. — There are no foxes. Rats are by far the
worst vermin ; we kill between 5000 and 8000 every year.
Small birds are a great nuisance ; owing to the killing of
the hawks we have hundreds of thousands of small birds —
sparrows, linnets, and chaffinches. They do untold damage
to the corn, eat quantities of the pheasant chicks' food,
and, I believe, convey disease (enteric, etc.). They ought
to be kept down. I have seen flocks estimated at over
40,000 in a piece of rye left standing in December. Owls
and kestrels ought to be encouraged ; they do far more good
by killing rats than they do harm by taking an odd tame
plieasant chick or two. They do not touch wild chicks as
a rule, and if a keeper leaves his small chicks out of their
coops at night, he deserves to lose them. One rat does
more harm in a single week than an owl does in ten years.

BY MANY HANDS 163

If I could get them, I would turn out a hundred owls ;
they are the only sure way of killing off the rats.

After rats_, our worst vermin are the receivers of stolen
eggs, too often gentlemen owning shoots.

Too many pheasants, of course, affect the partridges ;
they drive them off the stubbles and take the food. In the
nesting season I have seen pheasants drive partridges off
their nests and take possession of them.

The French partridge and the English do not disagree
to any great extent ; besides, the Frenchman lives on
warren and bracken lands, where the grey bird could not
exist. If you open his crop you find it full of the seeds that
grow on the fronds of the bracken. We have killed 500
French partridges here in one day's driving.

I do not think that an ordinary stock of hares are
detrimental to partridges.

The partridges are fed in severe weather with Dari seed
and the tailings of the stacks. I think they ought to be
fed for al^out a fortnight before the corn ripens in August
in cold seasons, when there is very little insect life about.
I have seen birds at the end of July that I am sure were
short of food.

Disease. — Diarrhoea and worm have been very prevalent
for the last five years. The only artificial manure used in
the place is a little superphosphate and bones with the
root crop.

Size of Beat. — I have a head-keeper with eight to twelve
men under him (8000 acres). Partridges should not be
shot after December. I once shot on a friend's shoot on
11th January, when the birds had paired ; they came in
pairs over the guns, and we practically wiped out the
stock. It took him three years to get them up again.

Stock. — As to stock to leave, that is entirely a question
for each farm. I have known a 250-acre piece with over
80 pairs on it in March, which had not 10 brace on it in
December ; I had purposely killed them down. I regard
old partridges three years old and upwards as worse than

164

PARTRIDGES

useless ; they will not lay themselves and chase the young
pairs away. I knew a 7-acre piece of Kidney Vetch
which was haunted by 9 pairs of young partridges in the
middle of April, evidently going to nest there ; then
appeared one old pair and drove the lot away.

PARTRIDGE BAGS

Days' shooting.

Numbers.

Total.

1899

3

237

1900

3

208-204-270

742

1901

4

462-430-233-335

1460

1902

5

398-453-273-486-309

1919

1903

3

146-244-212

609

1904

4

637-431-417-347

1832

1905

4

383-361-697-265

1706

1906

2

386-397

783

1907

2

490-371

861

1908

2

360-345

705

1909

2

298-270

568

Note

In Nov. and Dec. 1899 turned down 500 brace of Hungarians,

1900 „ 450

1901 „ 400

1902 „ 300

SWAFFHAM PRIOR, CAMBRIDGE

(Notes by G. Tosetti, Esq.)

My shooting extends over about 3000 acres, of which
2000 acres form my real partridge ground, with soil of a
light nature, partly white land, partly red. The remain-
ing 1000 acres are mostly fen-land, which is not used for
regular driving. The high land, which borders with

BY MANY HANDS 165

Newmarket Heath, is highly cultivated on a four years'
system, and sheep are regularly kept on it. There is no
grass-land, heyond artificial crops, such as sainfoin and
clover. The fields are very large, some nearly 300 acres,
for the most part divided by closely cut-down fences,
raised on low banks. There are no ditches, which I
consider an important point, as many young chicks get
lost in them, or drowned in bad weather.

The short thick fences form excelleut nesting places,
and are chiefly used by the partridges, though a fair
percentage of nests are found in the sainfoin and clover
fields, principally in the former. Nests are also made in
wheat-fields, the site of nest depending a good deal on
the season, according to the advance of the various crops.
No artificial places for nesting are provided. I have
found nests of both French and English partridges round
and on the top of straw stacks. Partridges here are fond
of making their nests near roadways and farm buildings,
and, unless very much exposed, 1 do not interfere with them.

I am a great believer in finding every nest possible,
and have the nests regularly and carefully watched. The
reason for this is tliat should anything go wrong with the
nest the keeper will find it out and discover the culprit,
whoever it may be, man, beast, or bird. The average
number of eggs in a nest on my place is about 16. I
have had many nests over 20 and up to 28. 1 always lift
eggs and change them about from one end of the shoot
to the other, my keepers having specially-made belts to
carry the eggs carefully and close to the body. I only
have partridges hatched from eggs found in nests cut out
by the mowing machine, or otherwise disturbed. These
eggs are put under ordinary hens, and when chipped all
but 5 or 6 are taken away from under the hen, and put
in the incubator. When hatched and dry they are re-
turned to the hen. This is done to prevent the hen from
stamping on the chicks and killing several, which might
happen when she has a large number to hatch.

166 PARTRIDGES

These young chicks are only kept at home for three
or four days, when they are distributed amongst wild
coveys. To do this efficiently my keepers keep regular
plans of the nests found, against which they put tlie date
when the bird has gone down to sit. This enables us to
get the date of incubation fairly close. The nest is
watched, and a day after the wild birds have been hatched,
5 to 10 tame chicks are put down near the place where
the wild covey has been disturbed. Invariably the old
birds take away with them the additional lot of tame ones.
1 have watched this interesting performance over and
over again, and have found it very successful. Of course
I am running the risk of losing tame and wild together
should heavy rains or bad weather follow, but I am
strongly against hand-reared partridges, as I feel con-
vinced such birds will always be weak and spoil your
stock. For the same reason I am dead against the intro-
duction of Hungarian partridges. I attribute my success
to the liealthy state of my birds ; being strong, they can
stand better such adverse weather as we have had for the
last two seasons.

I am also much opposed to the practice of lifting eggs
from nests, although they may be in very exposed places.
It makes the birds dislike the place and move to neigh-
bouring ground. In the case of nests badly exposed and
in dangerous places, I use the Euston system, and the
results have been excellent. This year we treated twenty-
seven nests successfully in this way. There being no
woods about this part of the country, and consequently
no hunting, we are not troubled by foxes. I use
reynardiue round nests in exposed places to prevent dogs
and cats interfering with them, and with good results.

Vermin of any kind must be carefully kept down, other-
wise no fair partridge-sliooting can be expected. Rats 1
consider the worst enemies, and it is the duty of a good
keeper to see that possibly no rat is left on the place by
the time the nesting season begins. Stoats and weasels

BY MANY HANDS 167

give trouble, and a sliarp look-out must be kept for them.
Hedg-ehogs suck eggs and also kill young birds. Rooks
should be very carefully watched. I have seen them
hunting for eggs in quite a systematic way all along a
fence. If not stopped, they would do great damage, for,
having once taken an egf^ from a nest, they will come
back to the same nest till no egf^ is left. I do not allow
owls to be killed ; 1 have been told they do harm, but no
case has ever come under my personal notice.

There are many hares on this shooting, but I cannot
say that they affect my stock of partridges, though they
are a nuisance when driving. Pheasants ought to be kept
to a very limited number on a good partridge shoot. It
is my opinion that many partridge shoots have been spoiled
by too many pheasants being reared. Partridges require
a clean, healthy soil not tainted by numbers of pheasants
running over it. Pheasants disturb the partridges, are
very fond of laying in their nests, and I have seen a
partridg>e chick killed by an old spiteful cock-pheasant.

There are only very few French partridges on this
shoot ; I do not consider their presence harmful, but
would not care for too many. I believe in feeding
partridges from January almost to the time of the breed-
ing season. Wheat I consider the best food, for it keeps
them warm when no other grain can be got by them,
and gets the birds into good condition for the laying
season. I have often been complimented on the size
and fine condition of the birds killed on this place, and
there is no doubt that they are good fliers and give
sport.

1 have not found that artificial m.anure is injurious to
birds.

I employ two keepers : the shooting being a very open
one, they are sufficient to look after it. Besides, the
farmers, shepherds, and labourers are all good fellows
here, and take an interest in my shooting.

I rarely shoot partridges after Christmas, except.

168 PARTRIDGES

perhaps, a few brace for the house. I leave a large stock,
quite 500 brace to the 2000 acres.

My best day's driving was 314 brace over not more
than 500 acres, six guns, and only one set of beaters,
as I am adverse to having two sets of beaters. My
best total was for the season 1907-1908, 2704 partridges.
The last two seasons were bad ones, still I had the good
luck to kill over 600 brace last year, and over 700 brace
in the present season. It is in bad seasons that the
healthy and strong condition of birds will tell most.

STETCHWORTH, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

(Notes by Mr. R. Hersey, head-keeper to the
Earl of Ellesmere.)

This shoot is about 5500 acres, of which 2500 acres
have a light and sandy soil. On the rest of the ground
the soil is heavy and sticky, and not suitable for game,
as it adheres to their feet. Almost all is ploughed, and
cropped on the four-course system.

The nesting ground on the light land consists of beech
and fir belts and some quickthorn hedges ; on the heavy
land all hedgerows. We have two long narrow estates
adjoining. Each has a large village in the centre, which
does not improve them, and both have a great many roads
and footpaths : quite half our partridges are hatched by
tlie roadsides. Dogs are our worst trouble — of course
they are well watched all the nesting time. I never take
a man off his Ijcat after the partridges begin to lay, as I
expect him to find every nest he can, and visit it at least
once a day. This keeps a man up to his work, and makes
it more interesting to him. I visit the nests as often as I
can during incubation.

All eggs are marked with a rubber stamp, which checks
egg-stealing. A good keeper will have his own marks to
a nest from each side of a hedge, and will know at once

BY MANY HANDS 169

if anything is wrong. If a good watch is not kept, one
stoat might soon spoil several nests by sucking the eggi^.
Every hedge or belt should be rigidly trapped, and any
trace of vermin noticed at once^ or great havoc may be done,

I believe in taking up say twenty nests in a hundred,
making sure that the bird has laid her first lot by adding
sham or clear pheasant eggs. She will then lay 8 or 10
eggs, sometimes more, that would never have been laid
had she been allowed to continue with her first lot. 1 do
not believe in making up nests, unless a very small nest
in the case of a bird known to have lost some eggs by
vermin, but prefer to hatch under hens, timed to hatch
the same date as the majority of the first nests, so that 8
to 10 chicks can be put down with each pair of birds
hatching at the same time. 1 do not hand-rear any if I
can avoid it ; they have all the disadvantages of hand-
reared pheasants, and are given to migrate. I believe in
changing English eggs, and prefer eggs fi'om the north of
England or Scotland. I do not like Hungarian birds ; I
have noticed that the stock has shown a tendency to
decrease on ground where they have been put down in
numbers for three or four seasons running. They do not
seem to stand rough weather as well as the English birds,
and are more given to nesting in the open fields.

We are not troubled much by foxes as the woods are
at the heavy laud end of the shoot. I find reynardine,
paraffin, and old iron laid round the nests a good pro-
tection. Rats, stoats, weasels, house cats, and hedgehogs
are our worst vermin ; the latter a bad thief, and his
handiwork easy to recognise, for he always bites a piece
out of the side of the egg. Kestrels are very destructive
to young partridges on our large fields until they get their
feathers, after that the sparrow-hawk is a worse danger.
Owls counteract any harm they do by the numbers of rats
they kill, and 1 do not think they all kill game. Some
rooks are bad egg-stealers, and have become worse of late
years.

170 PARTRIDGES

I do not believe in keeping a lot of hares or pheasants
on partridge ground ; partridges will migrate if their
ground is overstocked. I do not consider the red-legged
partridge harmful to the English birds ; the latter can
hold their own, for they are very pugnacious, and I have
seen one thrash a game bantam. I feed with a little
wheat, barley, or seeds in the belts when snow lies for
long.

We have had a few birds die from a wasting disease,
but although I have had them analysed, the cause of death
was not discovered ; they are mostly found after a very
cold and wet spring. Gapes are worst when such a spring
is followed by a hot, dry summer ; this is the first disease
to attack all game birds when there is a lack of natural
food. I consider many of the artificial manures and dips
injurious to partridges ; I have always noticed birds found
in a wasting condition on land where a lot of artificial
manure is used instead of farmyard dung.

I consider 1000 to 1200 acres plenty for a man to see
after properly.

I think partridge-shooting should end first week in
January. I prefer a fair stock to a superabundant, some-
thing like 150 to 200 brace per 1000 acres, but this varies
much on different ground according to how much feed
there is.

Our bags have steadily increased except in very bad
seasons, such as the last two. On the eSrd October 1900,
seven guns killed 724 partridges here on about the same
number of acres. Our best season was 1007-1008, when
2508 partridges were killed, of which 2180 came off the
light land, and only 418 from the heavy ; so you will see
the vast difference there is in good and bad land for
partridges. In my opinion heavy land is not worth
keeper's wages for partridges. In fourteen seasons our
best day off the heavy land was 130 brace.

BY MANY HANDS 171

THE HOO, HERTFORDSHIRE

(Notes by Mr. Ross, head-keeper to
Viscount Hampden.)

Ejctent. — 4500 acres. Soil, loam on chalk. 80 per
cent cultivation to grass. The land tilled on a four years'
course of cropping.

Nesting Ground. — Hedges with additional quicks planted,
with ammal planting of some young plantations in narrow
belts, or in clumps with a southerly exposure, with a view
also, if possible, for driving over. Where free from
public footpaths, small enclosures of about a yard square
are made of wire-netting, left open for 6 inches at the
bottom, to allow the birds to pass through freely.

Nesting Season. — ^^'^e find as many nests as possible
early in the season ; when the herbage gets long, much
harm may be done by poking about, making birds forsake.
I find that the weather is very often unsuitable for doing
much among nests in the early morning, and that it is
better to give attention to vermin traps, etc., when heavy
dew or morning frost show footprints too plainly, and
visit the nests later. From 8.30 p.m. till dark I find a
good time, and the best to tell what birds are preparing
to sit down. The nests are visited, as far as possible,
every day. Our nests average 14 eggs. All eggs in
dangerous places are lifted, and incubated to chipping
point, when they are changed again with the sham or
clear eggs which were given to the partridge instead.

I cannot say that rearing partridges has been very
successful here so far. In this hunting country some of
our neighbours rear a few partridges in wired enclosures
of about 20 acres with 4-inch mesh netting. It is true
this helps to keep a good stock, but the birds are found
to give poor sport, and the expense is out of proportion
to the result. I do not believe in Hungarian birds for
change of blood. I think that they spoil the stamina of

172 PARTRIDGES

our English birds^ and make the stock less capable of
withstanding wet summers^ like those of late years.

To keep our stock healthy we change eggs from one
part of the estate to another, and also with eggs from a
distance.

Vermin. — Foxes are strictly preserved here, which
means a heavy annual loss of both partridge and plieasant
nests. Where there are a fair quantity of rabbits, foxes
do not trouble the nests quite so much. To guard against
foxes, we wire in the young covers with G-foot netting,
sprinkle human urine, paraffin oil, and tar near the nests,
and leave sprung traps, old and broken traps set, or iron
hoops lying close by. Some of these remedies have been
successful at times.

Hedgehogs are our worst vermin, eating eggs and even
attacking sitting birds from behind, though I do not think
they meddle with young birds much. Rooks, cats, and
rats are the next worst enemies. The brown owl some-
times plays havoc among pheasants just taking to roost;
and in this district there is a Dutch or small owl, nearly
as bad as any hawk, flying about in the daytime, and
doing much harm among the young partridges. The
kestrels are quite as bad as sparrow-hawks with young
birds.

Pheasants are mischievous if too plentiful on partridge
ground, laying in and taking possession of partridges'
nests, defacing nests, and opening them out for rooks, etc.,
to find. Turkeys on farms are sometimes troublesome in
the same way. Hares and rabbits give much annoyance
unless kept well within limits. French partridges I
consider good for nothing, neither for change of blood
nor for sport.

We feed our partridges in snow and continued frost ;
also on ground where green crops or pasture-lands are
scarce.

Our birds sometimes suffer from gapes, scouring, and
red tick on the head. I believe basic slag to be bad for

BY MANY HANDS 173

partridges^ except wlieii washed into the soil early in
autumn.

Our beats are compactly situated and 1200 acres each
in extent.

We consider a brace of partridges for every 10 acres a
fair stock to leave. Our stock has been decreasing of late
years, chiefly owing to bad seasons, but partly from
changes in crops, very few roots being grown now, and
the corn-fields getting ploughed up so early, leaving little
feeding ground for the winter.

In a good year we have killed 1 bird to 2^ acres all
over the ground ; in an average season 1 bird to 4^ acres,
and in the last three years only 1 bird to 12 acres.

ORWELL PARK, IPSWICH, SUFFOLK

(From notes by M. J. Reader, head-keeper to
Capt. E. Prettyman.)

Several thousand acres of a light soil, mostly under
the plough, on a four-course shift. No artificial nesting
ground is provided. Each man has about 1000 acres to
look after. It is found impossible to know of all the
nests, but every nest found is visited daily.

The average number of eggs varies greatly according
to the weather. All roadside eggs are lifted and put into
other nests, no partridges are reared. Eggs are occasion-
ally changed ; Hungarians have been turned down, but
were thought to have done far more harm than good.

Partridges are never fed. There are no foxes. Rats
and stoats are found to be the worst vermin, owls and
kestrels are only occasionally found to do any harm, while
hedgehogs, though destructive, are very scarce. Hares
are considered quite harmless.

Pheasants and French partridges lay in the grey bird's
nests, but if well looked after in the nesting season, are
found to cause little harm.

174 PARTRIDGES

In a good year shooting continues to the end of the season.
The stock is judged while shooting. No special form of
disease has heen noticed, though a few birds have been
picked up dead at different times. Tliree hundred brace a
day and over have been killed in good seasons, but of
late years the totals have come down to less than 100 brace
a day. Six thousand birds off 18,000 acres has been given
as a fair year's total at Orwell Park. Mr. Reader concludes
'by saying : '' 1 consider the recent failure of partridges to
be entirely due to bad weather, as we were never short of
partridges when the weather has been good. 1 have never
known so many bad seasons in succession, and I have been
here over thirty years."

STRATTON, HAMPSHIRE

(Notes by the Earl of Northbrook.)

Extent about 5000 acres, with a chalk subsoil ; on the
top of the hills there is some depth of clay. A large pro-
portion of the land is cultivated. The nesting ground
is natural, with the addition of a few belts planted.
All nests are found when possible and visited daily ;
the average number of eggs in a nest is 14. No
partridges are reared except very occasionally, when
nests are cut out in mowing.

Eggs are changed from nests on one part of the ground
to another, and we also exchange eggs with neighbours
and with friends in other counties. We have turned
down Hungarians on three or four occasions, but I cannot
say with any marked result, though they certainly have
not done me any harm by introducing disease as has been
alleged to have occurred in some places.

No eggs are hatched in tlie incubator. VV^e take eggs
from nests 'cut out' or from outsides, and put them
under hens; when the eggs 'bill' they are substituted
(19 to a nest) for the eggs on which a hen partridge

BY MANY HANDS 175

has been sitting for some time — a fortnight or more. This
plan has proved very successful in hatching off substituted
eggs.

We suffer little trouble from foxes. The rats are our
worst vermin ; there are more in this part of the country
tlian in any other district that I am acquainted witli. In
the year ending March 1, 1911^ the keepers killed 11,961
rats. We have not many hedgehogs, but they are un-
doubtedly harmful, and will drive the hen bird off the
nest and eat the eggs. We have few stoats, but a litter
of stoats on partridge ground is most destructive. The
keepers are warned not to kill owls. The white owl does
no harm, though the brown owl will take young birds,
as will the kestrel ; but I do not believe they do so much
harm as keepers allege. Rooks are troublesome at times,
but are less numerous than formerly. It is undoubtedly
bad for partridges to have too many hares or pheasants
on the ground. I do not think that French partridges
interfere wijh common partridges here ; but we have few
French partridges. We kill a certain number every season ;
they neither increase nor decrease, probably because in
driving they come over singly and get shot.

The only disease we suffer from is ^gapes' in wet
seasons. We have no suspicion of any injury being caused
from the use of dressings or artificial manures. Each beat
is about 1500 acres. Partridges are only fed in severe
weather. I do not think partridges should be shot after
Christmas.

I do not know what to suggest as to stock when reduced
by one or two bad seasons, but I do believe that it is a
mistake not to shoot over the ground lightly once, even
in a bad season. We had a better stock in the spring
of 1909 than we have had for many years, but two bad
seasons have much reduced this : we now have a fair
stock over all the ground.

It is difficult to answer your question about acres to
each bird killed on a beat and all over the ground with

176 PARTRIDGES

any accuracy. The area of ground driven in a day varies
according to the season — i.e. the number of birds on the
ground.

My calculation of extent of ground available is a rough
one : taking the acreage of farms, which includes roads,
buildings, gardens, etc., I put it at .5000 acres. Tal<ing
this as approximately correct, we killed in 1906 1 bird
to 1*8 acres, and in the last two years, bad seasons, 1
tird to 4| acres. In a good season we have killed a bird
to the acre on a beat.

Un

yjsf/->^-c-^/7.

" Vermin.'

CHAPTER VI

VERMIN

What the real enemies of game are, and how they should
be dealt with — What animals and birds are unjustly
included in the list of proscription.

Since the dim and distant age when our
primitive ancestor first won the mastery
over those monstrous forms of early life,
whose uncouth lineaments we may still
outline in shadowy fashion from the grim
bony structures in our natural history
galleries, Man has advanced from a
precarious supremacy to a complete
dominion over all the beasts of the field.

That the heavy weight of responsi-
bility, which such power over his fellow-
creatures must of a necessity involve, has
lain lightly on the soul of man in the
past, let the shades of the vanished gare

177 12

178 PARTRIDGES

fowl, dodo, moa, and a hundred other
lost or vanishing forms of bird-life, bear
abundant testimony. Happily, however,
for what remains of our native fauna in
this country, the last fifty years have seen
a marked change for the better in our
attitude towards the wild life around us.
A new and wholesome interest in nature
and natural history has accompanied the
advance of education, and found favour
with the general public, till lately caring
nothing for these things and viewing
them only with the indifference born of
ignorance.

The spread of a better feeling among
all classes and the useful legislation of
the Wild Birds' Protection Act have done
good work, and though the damage
wrought in the past is in large measure
irreparable, for the bustard and the
spoonbill are gone for ever, nor may
we again hope for the graceful form of
the kite or the harrier to gladden the
eye on a country ramble ; though the
ruthless collector, indefatigable in his

VERMIN 179

errands of destruction, is still rife in the
land ; though ignorance and the dic-
tates of fashion still allow women to
deck themselves unchecked in beautiful
feathers cruelly torn from egrets on their
nests, yet, on the whole, the outlook is
hopeful, and many of our rarer native
birds, which till lately seemed doomed
soon to disappear from the land, have
taken a new lease of life, and are respond-
ing generously to the protection now
accorded to them by increasing their
numbers and extending their range.

In this regard, we must all welcome
most gladly the change from the old order
to the new in the race of gamekeepers.
The old gamekeeper had much to answer
for ; he knew little and cared less about
any beast or bird on his ground which
did not come under the category of Game.
The justice which he meted out to the
creatures of the wild was that of the
Revolutionary Tribunal — all suspects to
the guillotine or the gallows tree.

Sad reading are some of the vermin

180 PARTRIDGES

lists of other days, dismal records of mis-
directed energy ; here is the tale of vermin
which Mr. Edward Ellice gives as trapped
in Glengarry between the years 1837 and
1840 :—

11 Foxes. 371 Rough -legged Buz-

198 Wild Cats. zards.

78 House Cats (going wild). 3 Honey Buzzards.

246 Martens. 462 Kestrels.

106 Polecats. 78 Merlins.

301 Stoats and Weasels. 63 Hen Harriers.

67 Badgers. 6 Jerfalcons.

48 Otters. 9 Ash-coloured Hawks

15 Golden Eagles. (Montagu's Harrier).

27 White-tailed Eagles. 1431 Hooded Crows.

18 Ospreys. 475 Ravens.

98 Blue Hawks (Sparrow- 35 Horned Owls (?Long-
Hawks). eared Owls).
7 Orange - legged Fal- 7 1 Fern Owls (Goat-
cons (? Peregrines). suckers).

1 1 Hobbies. 3 Golden Owls (.? Bam

275 Kites. Owls).

65 Goshawks. 8 Magpies.

285 Common Buzzards. 5 Marsh Harriers.

Of the thirty-one beasts and birds
classed as vermin in this remarkable list,
eleven at least may be safely acquitted
of any serious damage to game, while for
no less than thirteen of these species you

VERMIN 181

may search not only Glengarry but the
whole of the Highlands to-day in vain ;
they are gone beyond recall, and are
known to us now only as the rarest of
visitors. Fortunately the intelligence of
keepers and the interest of their masters
have at last been aroused, the age of in-
discriminate slaughter may be said to be
past, and though careful supervision of
the vermin list is still the duty — too often
neglected — of every owner or tenant of a
shooting, most of the modern school of
gamekeepers unite some knowledge of
natural history to their many other good
qualities, and may be fairly trusted not
to abuse their powers of summary juris-
diction. Abroad it is to be feared that
a less desirable state of affairs prevails,
even apart from those countries where
almost every creature which cannot be
classed as vermin is regarded as legitimate
game and pursued accordingly.

The following is the list of vermin
killed on the estates of Count Andreas
Csekonics, at Zsombolya in Hungary,

182 PARTRIDGES

during a period of ten years, from
February 1, 1889, to January 31, 1899 :—

1,337 Foxes. 121 Eagles.

2 Wolves. 4,724 Hawks and Buz-
1 Badger. zards.

6 Wild Cats. 4,394 Sparrow-Hawks.

488 Polecats, Hedge- 41,903 Crows,

hogs, and Ham- 10,783 Magpies,

sters. 6,770 Owls.

19,856 Weasels. 36,481 Other Birds of
908 Cur Dogs. Prey.

904 Cats.

making a total of 128,678 head.

Nearly seven thousand owls, some
thousands of presumably harmless hawks,
and between thirty and forty thousand
unspecified and probably unidentified
"other birds of prey," among which
there must surely have been numbered
many a rare and interesting innocent,
many a humble and harmless farmer's
friend. Unless this be an isolated instance,
it would seem that in Hungary the
interests of natural history and agri-
culture alike receive small consideration
at the hands of the game-preserver.

Let us then, in dealing with the

VERMIN 183

question of vermin in this country, hold
a court of justice before which we shall
summon all supposed offenders, duly
weigh evidence, both for and against the
accused, and pronounce judgment, not,
indeed, tempered by mercy — for proved
vermin must be placed beyond the pale —
yet, we will trust, equally untainted by
prejudice.

If we deal with our suspects in order,
according to the gravity of the charge
presented against them, few will deny
the common brown rat priority of place
over all comers. Since, under the more
humane influences of modern legislation,
the horrors of the rat-pit were abolished,
and live rats ceased to fetch 3s. a dozen
in the open market, the rat cannot be
said- to have a single friend left in the
world. His crimes are legion and his
omnivorous voracity beyond all belief:
he destroys untold quantities of grain in
the stackyard, while he will tear the very
nails and skin off the elephants' feet at
the Zoo ; he will eat a turnip or a five-

184 PARTRIDGES

pound note with equal avidity ; has killed
babies in the cradle/ and tramps sleeping
in a barn. He has been known to eat
his way straight through a live fat pig,
while it is recorded that when the band-
stand of the Gaiety Restaurant was re-
moved a few years ago, beneath were
found the remains of no less than 1728
serviettes, dragged there and destroyed
by the rats. The zenith of his sublime
audacity may be said to have been
reached when we read that in many
public gardens the mighty hippopotamus,
turning over in his sleep, has squashed
flat numbers of rats which had come to
gnaw at his extremities.

In the ordinary course of events, and
without taking into any account the
serious hurt done to game, or the perhaps
somewhat abnormal damage to hippo-
potami or table-linen, it has been estimated,
at a very moderate computation, that rats
cost the community in this country some

^ 'Die last recorded instance was at Levvisham in
November 1905, when a six weeks' old child was gnawed
to death in the cradle.

VERMIN 185

twenty millions a year — a heavy price
indeed to pay for the entertainment of
so unlovely and undesirable a guest.

Up to the present time, despite the heavy
tax he levies on rich and poor, countrymen
and townsfolk alike, the rat has enjoyed
a strange toleration at the hands of man.
This can only arise, one would think, from
ignorance ; the bulk of his depredations
take place unseen or underground ; what
the eye does not see the heart will not
grieve for, and while the farmer seldom
fails to take instant notice of a single
turnip broken by a hare, he often acquiesces
with seeming indifference in supporting a
host of hungry dependants on the produce
of his farm. Spasmodic efforts are indeed
made from time to time to deal with the
trouble in places where the rats have
increased beyond all measure, but such
local and independent efforts can scarcely
touch the fringe of the evil, and leave
no permanent effect. This may be easily
understood when we consider the amaz-
ing fecundity of the rat. Mr. JNIillais

186 PARTRIDGES

estimates that a young doe rat of three
months old, giving birth on the 1st January
to a litter of thirteen, the average number,
and thereafter repeating the process every
six weeks, can, within the span of a single
year, potentially be responsible for no
less than 35,044 descendants. Should we
take the actual increase to be but one-
fortieth of the potential, it remains quite
obvious that only the universal action of
the whole country can rid us of this pest.

We have dwelt at some length on the
general aspects of the rat problem, apart
from the more technical point of view
as affecting game only, because we hold
that in this respect we game-preservers
are in no small degree responsible to
agriculture.

We have taken it upon ourselves to
destroy the natural enemies of the rats,
which enemies, but for the unremitting
warfare we wage against them, would
exist in enormous numbers and serve to
restore the balance of nature, keeping the
rats within some limits. This may be an

VERMIN 187

unpopular theory to advance, but it is
best to have justice all round, freely admit
our partial responsibility in this respect,
and impress on our keepers the absolute
necessity of placing the rat first on his
list of proscription.^ There are too many
keepers who would regard the presence
of a hawk's nest on the most distant
corner of their ground as a serious re-
flection on their professional character,
at the same time regarding with com-
parative equanimity a hedgerow overrun
with rats at their very door.

Yet rats are in reality the keeper's
worst enemies, confirmed and pertinacious
egg-stealers, deadly foes to all young game,
both winged and ground. Their destruc-
tive powers are almost incredible ; Mr.
Nelson Zambra describes, in a recent

^ Since these Hues were written the Chambers of
Agriculture have, by request, presented to the Government
their views on the rat question, urging- immediate legisla-
tion on the subject. Inter alia tliey recommend that
" complete protection should be afforded to all species
of owls, kestrels, hawks, and weasels — the natural enemies
of the rat." Comment on the effect that such protection
would have on game preservation is needless.

188 PARTRIDGES

number of the Estate Magazine, how fifty-
two of his six-weeks-old pheasant poults
were killed in a single night by one old
buck rat, every one being carried away
and carefully hidden in the grass.

The rat is becoming a greater danger
to game-preservers every year, for since
the modern use of cement flooring has
driven him from many a stable and
granary, there has sprung up an ever-
increasing race of hedgerow rats, who
remain in the open country all the year
round.

Since the rat has been proved to be
an active agent in spreading disease,
bringing bubonic plague from India into
our seaports, and being held responsible
for the recent outbreak of cerebro-spinal
meningitis in Suffolk, County Councils
have been given statutory powers to
enforce the destruction of rats within
their counties ; let us trust that even in
districts where no plague can be traced
among the rats. Councils will nevertheless
not be slow to avail themselves of the

VERMIN 189

power of ensuring a wholesale campaign
against such pestilent vermin.

It is not generally known that no rat
is a true native of this country ; the old
English or black rat, now practically ex-
tinct, is first recorded in the twelfth
century, while the brown rat, probably hail-
ing from Western Mongolia, crossed the
Volga about the close of the seventeenth
century, spreading with amazing rapidity
over the whole continent of Europe, and
was firmly established in these islands
fifty years later.

Like most other undesirable aliens, he
seems to have come to stay ; he quickly
polished off the black rat whom he found
in possession, and is now a chronic plague
in most of our eastern counties and an
abundant evil everywhere.

Guilty on all counts is, then, the verdict
on the rat.

The pine marten and the polecat —
sweet mart and foumart of local phraseo-
logy— now only exist in such scanty
numbers that the presence of an odd

190 PARTRIDGES

one may well be tolerated should it occur.
It would be a shame wittingly to hasten
their already inevitable extinction, though,
were they plentiful, they would rank only
second to the rat as agents to destruction.
We dismiss this case, then, as 'Charge
not pressed,' the interests of science bid-
ding us stay our hands, even though it
may involve some slight mischief among
our game.

The stoat can claim no such immunity,
for constant persecution — and he is one
of the easiest animals to trap — never
seems to reduce his numbers below the
normal ; relax the strain for a single year
and stoats literally swarm on the ground.
To this graceful and graceless murderer
— for the stoat kills for sheer love of
slaughter — nothing in the nature of game
comes amiss, birds old and young, chicks
and eggs, all being alike destroyed.
Some service the stoat certainly does
render to mankind by preying on the
smaller rodents, but these virtuous deeds
weigh but light in the balance against

VERMIN 191

the mass of his enormities, and the
extreme penalty of the law is all that this
cunning and enterprising ruffian can look
to receive at our hands.

The weasel, often, though needlessly,
confused with his larger congener, is a
more difficult case to dispose of. There
is certainly a strong opinion among out-
side authorities — that is to say, naturalists
who have never had a hand in preserving
game themselves — that keepers bear an
unjust grudge against the weasel, and
wrongly place him on the list of pro-
scription. We are told that the misdeeds
of the stoat are attributed to the weasel,
and that in truth the good he does
to agriculture far outweighs any trivial
injury he may inflict on game. But is
this injury so trivial, we would ask ?
Doubtless rats, voles, mice, and small
birds form his staple diet, but that so
swift and fearless a hunter can ever be
expected to spare our game is more than
we can believe, nor can he be acquitted
of being a persistent egg-thief. One

192 PARTRIDGES

must be prepared to admit that in
destroying the weasel game-preservers
become, in some degree, responsible for
the presence of the rat and the vole ; yet
that the interests of game demand this
destruction seems a matter beyond all
doubt.

The hedgehog — an archaic form of
Insectivore, or insect-eater — next claims
our attention. Would that his diet was
restricted by his name, but it is to be
feared that this nocturnal marauder plays
sad havoc among the partridge nests.
But he has his defenders too : Mr. J. G.
Millais, in his monumental work on
British Mammals, argues that —

The attacks on poultry and game are nearly
always the sins of individual animals, and are
not the practice of the whole species, . . . the
mischief is generally stopped by the killing of
the individual sinners, and only the ignorant,
which is another name for the unobservant, will
extend their anathemas and acts of retribution to
a whole race of practically innocent creatures.

Even were this the case — which cannot
be admitted when the weight of evidence

■f

.■^ Ci

%-^

"Their Worst Enemy." Hex House and Poultry on Stubble Field.

VERMIN 193

on the other side is considered — it would
be almost impossible to convict the
individual offender, for he works under
cover of darkness, and only by the rarest
of chances can the hedgepig be caught
flagrante delicto.

Had the lines quoted above been
applied to the kestrel or any of the owls,
they would have been very much to the
point, but written as they are about the
hedgehog, we cannot help feeling that
this conclusion is erroneous, and the
suggestion based on it impracticable.
Gamekeepers of any experience in the
matter always claim to recognize at a
glance the handiwork of a hedgehog in
a partridge's nest ; the traces are those of
a clumsier marauder than rat or stoat,
and the egg-shells are all bitten to pieces.
Traps then set by the damaged nest
constantly catch the supposed criminal,
especially if there are any eggs left in the
nest — good enough evidence in itself for
a strong prima facie case against the
accused. But more direct proof is avail-

13

194 PARTRIDGES

able : Mr. T. Speedy — competent witness
where the evidence of the eye on a point
of natural history is in question — has
placed it on record that he has caught a
hedgehog red-handed in a pheasant's nest
on the Ladykirk estate in Berwickshire.
Mr. S. H. Copsey, Summerfield, Norfolk,
writes ^ : —

I went early one morning to a fence to
change some partridge's eggs, and found the
first nest gone. I concluded a hedgehog had
been there. Although no shells were left in the
nest, there were plenty a few yards away in the
field. Another nest was within 40 yards, and
to my surprise a fine old hedgehog was sitting in
the nest eating the eggs. While I was looking
at the beast he moved out of the nest to sit in
the morning sun. He grunted as fat pigs do.
It is needless for me to say that in my anger I
put my foot on him, to squeeze out of him some
of the eggs and his life with them.

Again, to quote Mr. R. Russell,
Benhall : —

One night, on a well-known estate in Hamp-
shire, I heard a partridge fly from her nest.
Going stealthily to the spot I struck a match

^ Letter to the Gamekeeper ^ January 1911.

VERMIN 195

and beheld a hedgehog devouring an egg. An-
other time I heard a hen cackling in the wood.
Knowing she had a nest and was due to hatch, I
went to investigate ; getting near I could hear a
chicken. When I lit a match, there was a hedge-
hog eating the chick which was still in the shell,
and the hedgehog's snout was covered with blood.

The first letter is important evidence,
for here is the keeper's diagnosis justified ;
he recognized the hedgehog's handiwork
before he saw the hedgehog. Admit
this, and the suspicions — amounting in
their own minds to a certainty — of a
thousand other observant keepers, who
have never had the chance of obtaining
direct proof, tell very heavily against the
accused.

We have gone into this question at
length, for if we are to differ from the
leading authority on our mammals,
chapter and verse must be quoted to
support our case. So we now confidently
pronounce against the hedgehog, finding
that the race as a whole, and not merely
the occasional individual, is guilty of egg-
stealing, with strong presumption that

196 PARTRIDGES

many young birds and old partridges
sitting on their nests are numbered
among the victims of the hedgepig, who
would doubtless like us to believe that
he spent all his nights in "routing up
the cow-dungs for the blackbobs."

The case of the cat — including the
domestic cat gone wild and the puss
of the farm and cottage, law-abiding by
day but more than possibly lawless by
night — is simple. In its proper sphere,
a useful member of the community,
destroyer of small undesirables, rats,
voles, mice, and sparrows ; out of its
proper sphere, an arrant and inveterate
poacher, and to be dealt with as such
whenever apprehended.

Of the crow tribe, the carrion crow
may well claim the doubtful honour
of precedence in our list. Cunning and
wary in all his doings, he ranks second
to none as an egg-thief, and his depre-
dations extend to nearly full-grown
young partridges. The jackdaw, whose
presence is too often tolerated, is equally

VERMIN 197

harmful in the nesting season ; nor need
these two look for any mercy at our
hands.

The rook has taken to evil ways of
late years, and is rapidly becoming a
habitual criminal in his relations to game.
It is true that the guilt rests with in-
dividuals and not with the whole race ;
but these individual evil-doers are for
some reason increasing so rapidly, and
are further so impossible to single out
for punishment, that the whole com-
munity must needs be held responsible
for the misdeeds of some of its members.
Inquisitive, enterprising, quick to put
two and two together, rooks on partridge
ground at nesting time are no favourites
with the keeper. Let him incautiously
leave traces of his visit to a partridge nest,
and the rooks will soon be there. Their
presence is most felt after a dry spring,
when the nests are readily discovered by
their keen and curious eyes as they
systematically work the hedgerows in
pairs. Even when the partridge is

198 PARTRIDGES

sitting there is no security, for, like a
true bully, one rook, having made the
find, will return with a party of his
fellow -roughs to mob the unfortunate
sitting bird off her nest and fall to on
the spoil.

While eggs are the staple attraction,
the poaching rook will make short work
of any young partridge that comes in
his way. On the whole, whatever his
benefits to agriculture — and farmers are
by no means of one mind on the subject
— there is little doubt that the rook is
an undesirable neighbour where game is
to be preserved.

The grey or hooded crow is only with
us from October to April, nesting in
more northern latitudes, so on most
partridge manors he can put forward
a satisfactory alibi to any charge of
malfeasance.

There is no need to draw any attention
to the misdeeds of the magpie, for his
striking appearance and easy destruction
ensure him immediate attention at the

VERMIN 199

hands of every gamekeeper. He is
mischievous, be it admitted, yet no more
so than the jackdaw, whose less obtrusive
garb often procures him immunity. The
magpie must certainly be kept within
limits, but the utter extermination of
so fine a fellow would be a sorry business,
and one would always feel inclined to
give him the benefit of the doubt.

The jay is another beautiful dweller
in our woodlands who deserves more
consideration at our hands than he usually
receives. If individual misdeeds — and an
egg-baited trap readily brings the mis-
creant to book — be dealt with as such,
the trouble often ceases altogether. Jays
are the keeper's watchdogs in the woods,
giving early warnhig if aught be amiss ;
and a fair sprinkling of one of our most
beautiful native birds will not be found
an unmixed evil.

Of the birds of prey, the peregrine
must take first place for its destructive
powers among game. Fortunately for
its continued existence in this country.

200 PARTRIDGES

this noble falcon is protected in many
counties, and while no great numbers
could be tolerated on preserved land, we
can well suffer the presence of a few
without complaining.

There is some divergence of opinion
about the merits and demerits of the
sparrow - hawk. One authority ^ states
that **the successful rearing of game is
an impossible task where this bird is
allowed to exist " ; another,^ with ten
years' practical experience of game-
keeping to give weight to his opinion,
writes that —

It is high time that sparrow-hawks were placed
under the protecting wing of the law. Genera-
tions of gamekeepers have persecuted them re-
lentlessly. ... If sportsmen would consider the
evidence for and against sparrow - hawks as
despoilers of game — if they would rely no longer
on prejudice and crass ignorance — we feel sure
they would take steps to stay the wanton slaughter
by their gamekeepers of these handsome, useful
birds. . . . But sparrow-hawks grow scarce, they
are seen far less commonly than kestrels. . . .

1 Mr. Tom Speedy in The Keepers Book, 1903.
2 A Gamekeeper s Notebook^ by Oweu Jones, 1910.

VERMIN 201

A third writer^ describes the sparrow-
hawk as " one of the most numerous and
destructive of our hawks."

Now the universal habit is to condemn
sparrow-hawks unheard, and class them
with the worst of vermin ; nor would it
be an easy matter to induce a gamekeeper
to stay his hand when there is a nest of
blue hawks on his ground. The utmost
we could hope to do would be to persuade
gamekeepers to accept nothing but the
evidence of their own eyes, and to prove
to their own satisfaction that such damage
as is wrought to the game is the work of
the species in general, and not of isolated
individuals, before they condemn the
whole race. In this context it would
be very useful if keepers could be induced
to examine the contents of the stomach
and crop of all the predatory birds that
they kill, and keep notes of the result
for future guidance.

The useful work of kestrels has at last
received tardy recognition, and few con-

^ Mr. Carnegie^ Practical Game-Preserving, 1906.

202 PARTRIDGES

tinue to shoot them at sight, as every
gamekeeper used to do but a few years
ago. A clear case of gamecide should
invariably be established against the in-
dividual before the life of the handsome
and useful ' windhover ' be taken.

The merlin can only be looked on as
an enemy to game in the summer, for
a full-grown partridge is quarry beyond
his reach. As this diminutive falcon
always nests on moorland, he may well
be spared on partridge ground, for he
will be gone long before any young
partridges are hatched.

Of the owls, the short-eared species
is the only one that hunts by day, and
would beyond all doubt play havoc among
young partridges were it not, for the
most part, only a winter visitor to this
country. Good evidence should be forth-
coming as to its depredations among full-
grown partridges before destroying it on
ground where it does not breed.

No tawny, long-eared, or barn owl
should ever be killed without direct

VERMIN 203

proof of guilt. There is no difficulty in
finding out what owls have been eating ;
a very slight examination of the pelts
dropped under their roosting places gives
an infallible resume of their diet.

The poaching dog cannot rightly be
classed as vermin, nor indeed can he
be legislated for as such by our court.
At the same time stray dogs are the very
mischief, and their disappearance is all to
the interests of the shoot.

Poultry on the stubbles are another
adverse influence ; they usurp the territory
and the food of the partridge, foul the
ground, and are by no means above
suspicion as agents in spreading disease.
When a new lease is being drawn, the
interests of the partridge should be con-
sidered in this respect, and some restric-
tions placed on this rapidly spreading
practice of chicken-farming.

In summing up we would classify the
enemies — real or supposed — of the part-
ridge in this country as follows : —

204 PARTRIDGES

1. Pestilent vermin at all times.

The rat {Mus decumanus).
The stoat {Putorius ermineus).
The hedgehog {Erinaceits eiiropaeus).
The weasel (Putorius nivalis).
The carrion crow (Corviis cor one).
. The domestic cat (gone wild or strayed).
The jackdaw {Corvtis monedula).

2. Vermin more or less injurious according to
local circumstances.

The rook {Corvus frugilegus).

The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus).

The sparrow-hawk (Accipiter nisus).

The magpie {Pica caudata).

The jay {GaiTulus glandaiius).

The short-eared owl {Asio hrachyotus).

3. Not true vermin, nor to be classed as such
— individuals may at times offend and have to be
destroyed, but the race should always enjoy
protection.

The long-eared owl {Asio otus).
The tawny owl {Syrnium aluco).
The barn owl {Strix jiammea).
The kestrel {Falco thumncidus).
The buzzard {Bnteo vulgaris).

4. Species whose rarity should ensure their
protection.

The polecat {PiUorius j^utorius).
The marten {Mustela rnartes).
The rarer hawks, such as the goshawk,
hobby, and harriers.

VERMIN 205

5. Naturally destructive to young game, but
innocuous on partridge ground owing to their
absence in summer.

The hooded crow (Corvus comix).
The merlin {Falco aesalon).

6. Doubtful cases — probably do little real
harm.

The squirrel {Sciurus vulgaris) — has been

known to take the young and eggs

of game.
The badger {Meles meles) — omnivorous,

may destroy nests.
The otter (Liitra hitra) — sometimes takes

rabbits and possibly game.
The water-hen {Galliiiula cliloropus) — said
X to suck eggs.

7. Harmless, though sometimes persecuted.

The water-vole oi' water-rat {Arvicola

amphibius).
The nightjar {Cap?imulgus europaeus).

The view is often expressed that game-
preservers are unduly handicapped in
their dealings with vermin, by the legal
protection now accorded to many of our
rarer birds and the statutory abolition of
the poletrap. It is hard to endorse any
such opinion, for the County Councils
may with justice be said to have exercised
the powers conferred on them by the

206 PARTRIDGES

Wild Birds' Protection Acts with singular
discretion, while the poletrap was a cruel
and casual method of dealing with birds
of prey, and one by which many of our
rarer hawks and falcons were destroyed.
By its abolition, the difficulties of the
keeper on the moor were doubtless
sensibly increased, for there fowls of the
air are the chief enemies of game ; but on
the partridge manor the real danger is on
the ground, and such few hawks as do
mischief can easily be dealt with.

There is little need to describe the
means of destruction by which vermin are
kept under. For the stoat, the unbaited
trap on his run ; for the hedgehog, the
trap also, but now baited with an egg ;
for the crow family in general, the doctored
egg ; while the hawks can be ambushed on
their daily rounds.

Only the rat needs mention in this
regard ; here trap and gun are only
palliatives; the much -vaunted virus is
often slow in spreading the seeds of
disease among the colony, and careful

VERMIN 207

and systematic poisoning remains the
surest remedy. If due precaution be
taken, a large area can be poisoned with-
out appreciable danger to any of its other
inhabitants. And so the curtain falls,
as it rose, with the rat — the real pro-
blem of the play — in possession of the
stage.

CHAPTER VII

SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE

On partridge-shooting generally — Guns, cartridges, men,
and dogs — Shooting over dogs — Walking in line.

" Fifty yards is as great a distance as a Sports-
man will in general attempt to shoot at, and
indeed greater than he ought to shoot at. For
if we will make the lives of poor birds our diver-
sion, we ought to put them to as little misery as
we can ; and therefore should not shoot without
being certain that they are within our reach, so
that the shot will fly thick enough to kill them
outright.""

These lines have stood the test of a
century, and may well open any disserta-
tion on partridge -shooting in general,
for they apply as well to the present
generation as to the one they were
addressed to. It is devoutly to be wished
that the firing of long and doubtful shots

208

/ciS,

'/U

"U/rjara: ^^^^^

(i) The Right Shot.

(2) TiiK Wrong Shot.

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 209

could be condemned by public opinion,
but unhappily the tendency seems rather
the other way round, and you may
commonly hear the shooter congratulate
himself in such wise ; ** My word, that bird
was a long way off ; I never thought I
should have got him." To which the
proper answer — never given — is, '* Well,
sir, if it was neither pace nor curve but
only distance that made the bird hard to
kill, you are condemned out of your own
mouth, and are guilty of a most unjusti-
fiable and unsportsmanlike action, for you
deliberately, in the hope of bringing off
a fluke, took every chance of wounding
the bird ; and I fear would have eaten
your dinner none the less comfortably
this evening for the thought, which
would never have occurred to you, that
the poor brute was cowering somewhere
in misery through your heedless action."

Enough of a distasteful subject. But
boys, when they first enter the shooting
field, cannot be too carefully taught to
play the game by the birds, and never

14

210 PARTRIDGES

to abuse their powers over the creatures
of the wild. Like most other virtues
and vices, such consideration is largely a
question of habit and early training, and
soon becomes a second nature to any one
who is brought up in the right way. But
we are apt to gloss over our responsi-
bilities light-heartedly, and many a boy is
now watching his father cheerfully firing
at birds quite beyond the killing range
and will as thoughtlessly do the same
when his turn comes.

Partridge-shooting is, of all forms of
sport with the gun, essentially the one
best suited for the man of moderate
means. Pheasants are costly creatures to
entertain ; the fancy rents cheerfully asked
and given for moors place so fashionable
a sport as grouse-shooting quite beyond
the reach of all but the wealthy ; changed
times have driven the wild fowl, once so
plentiful on our coasts, to harbour in re-
mote fastnesses, where few have leisure
to follow them ; only the little brown
bird remains to gladden the hearts of the

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 211

multitude of sportsmen whose expenditure
must be limited, yet who would not rest
content with competitions at clay pigeons.
Naturally, if big days are wanted, they
must be paid for both in rent and heavy
expenses of management ; but while
thousands may be profitably expended
in turning a wide stretch of country to
its best sporting uses, at the same time
it is quite possible in humbler fashion to
enjoy very good sport at surprisingly
small cost.

A' man who knows what he is doing
can sometimes pick up 500 acres of
good partridge land at a rent as low as
sixpence an acre. If he then takes care
to make friends with the people living on
the ground, most of his keepering will be
done for him gratis, and his expenses for
management may well be covered by a
ten pound note in the year. Off this
land he might quite easily kill 100 brace
in the season, the market value of which
would be about £10 ; he would probably
kill other game — odd pheasants, hares,

212 PARTRIDGES

and rabbits — to the value of fifty shillings,
making his net outlay £lO for the year,
irrespective of the cost of a game licence
and his cartridge bill. This is (j[uite a
realizable estimate, but even were it
doubled, our friend would get some
twenty enjoyable little days in the season
at £l a day, a very reasonable figure when
compared with the expenses of other
forms of sport.

Of course, to be successful on so small
a scale, the active goodwill of the farmers
is essential ; for if they be so disposed,
they can keep a good watch over the
ground while going about the ordinary
routine of their business. Some of the
labourers must be subsidized to keep the
vermin down and care for the nests in
spring, their efforts being best recognized
by a system of paying for results, which,
in the inevitable absence of constant
supervision, ensures some attention being
given to the interests of the slioot. Nor
has the tenant of such a shooting any real
cause to envy more fortunate people whose

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 213

sport is made easier for them. As he
stretches his pleasantly wearied limbs to
the fire, after a long and healthy day in
the fresh country air, and recalls every
shot, every manoeuvre that went to make
the bag of 5 or 6 brace of partridges with
sundries enough to complete the 20 head,
he is tasting to the full such pleasure as
sport can afford ; nor does the crack shot
who has killed his 40 birds in one drive
experience one whit more satisfaction.
Only let him rest content with what he
has ; to dabble in big days may well breed
discontent with the humbler results which
formerly pleased him so well.

Certainly every novice should be
trained to hunt and kill his game for
himself in the earlier days of his shooting
career. Just as a guardian should be
averse to giving a young fellow £10,000
a year to play with, however well the
state of his finances might seem to
warrant it, so in the world of sport I
feel convinced that it is a grievous error
to allow any one still in his teens to take

214 PARTRIDGES

his place among his elders and sample the
easily- won results of what journalists term
the * modern battue,' without first serving
his apprenticeship with the gun, learning
how to rely on himself in the field, and
not always to expect everything, except
pulling the trigger, to be done for him
by others as a matter of course. To feel
that success or failure rests entirely with
yourself, that you must work hard and
use your wits to some purpose if you
would realize but a modest total at the
end of the day, develops in time a faculty
for close and accurate observation which
nothing else can give.

To the possessor of this faculty each
day's shooting is a new lesson ; he is for
ever makhig mental notes for future use
— at first perhaps consciously, but soon
intuitively, till at last he comes to have
something akin with the wild hunting
animal, knowing without knowing why
he knows, and failing to understand how
others can miss seeing what to him is so
obvious. Turn such a man loose in a

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 215

strange part of the country, and you will
be amazed to see how quickly he will find
his bearings, how naturally he will spot
the likely places for a head of game. You
would scarcely believe that he had never
seen the place before ; yet there is
nothing really wonderful about his per-
formance, only he knows something of the
habits of beasts and birds, and attaches a
meaning to all the simple little details
which pass unnoticed by the unobservant.
In the ordered sequence of a regular
'shoot,' the working of this faculty is
not so evident ; only the good shot — as
one would like to call him, though the
term has of late been limited in common
parlance to imply mere accuracy with the
gun — seems always to be getting more
than his fair share of the shooting.
When you hear it commonly said of
any one, " Oh, X is an extraordinarily
lucky fellow, the birds always go to him,"
you may rest assured that the true reason
lies less in chance than in a keen apprecia-
tion of opportunity.

216 PARTRIDGES

There seem to be only two methods
of shooting the partridge practised to
any extent at the present time — driving,
which is almost exclusively employed
whenever the shooting is organized on
anything like a large scale, and marauding
with two or at most three guns and as
many retainers when the material for
driving is not available.

Occasionally, but only very occasion-
ally now — so much have things altered
in the last ten years — you may still meet
with the long ordered line of guns,
keepers, and beaters manoeuvring about
the country in the orthodox manner of
other days. But 'walking in line' is
nearly extinct, and surely few can be
found to regret its disappearance. For
what a dull performance it was at the
best ; easy of accomplishment, it is true,
demanding little of the ingenuity and
resource which make the successful
conduct of a day's driving almost as
much fun without a gun as with one.
But the shooting was a clumsy business.

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 217

and the endless repetition of the same
end-on shot compared but poorly with
the almost infinite variety of pace, angle,
and curl that driven birds offer.

Early in the season the birds lay
close, and there was little or no excuse
for ever missing, and consequently as
little pleasure in killing ; later in the
year when the cover was down, the birds
rose wild, and were only difficult to kill
because they were at the limit of killing
range, and should not have been fired at
at all. And the dreary monotony of the
interminable turnip-field in which you
solemnly wheeled, marched, counter-
marched, and wheeled again for half the
livelong day 1 As soon as you had
finished one half of the field and passed
on to the other, fresh birds were driven
on to the old ground, and you had to
retrace your footsteps and start the same
old evolutions all over again, till at length
it was with a heart-felt sigh of relief that
you stumbled over the last turnip by the
gateway and left the field you devoutly

218 PARTRIDGES

hoped never to see again. For this
form of shooting combined all the dis-
advantages incident to any formal
shooting with an absence of any of its
counterbalancing advantages. On all,
so to speak, official days there is bound
to be some feeling of constraint in the
air ; your host is at least preoccupied if
not actively worried ; the head -keeper —
an old acquaintance — has scarce leisure
to greet you, for he bears a heavy burden
of responsibility ; even your fellow-guns
take the business somewhat seriously.
On the bye day the trammels of dis-
cipline are relaxed ; every one is at his
ease, and though hard work and not
loafing is still the order of the day, there
is a happy feeling that it does not really
matter if things do go wrong. In driving
you look to the constant test of your skill
as a marksman and the pleasure of seeing
birds artfully handled to more than
compensate you for any loss of individual
freedom.

Such, at least, were the writer's im-

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 219

pressions of walking partridges in line,
once the age was past when to carry a
gun in the field at all was a pure joy ;
his sympathies were all with the gentle-
man who was overheard to remark
wearily to himself^ as the party was
leaving a perfect sea of turnips, where
birds had been scarce and the 'shaws'
soaking wet and near waist high — " Well,
I've read that every star differ eth in
glory, but I'm d — d if each turnip does."
The methods of walking partridges in
line call for little comment ; the general
principle is to collect the birds into good
cover — usually turnips — by detached
parties scouring the surrounding country,
and walk the field up and down in
narrow beats, either swinging the line
right round when within wheeling dis-
tance of the fence, or else walking the
field right out and filing along the fence
to take ground for the next beat. The
latter is the best plan, for many birds run
on to the edge of the turnips and squat
there till the line is close on to them,

220 PARTRIDGES

fearing to cross the open headland. If
it seems very desirable to push all the
birds on in one direction, all the beats
must be taken the same way, the party
retracing their footsteps in file over the
old ground between each beat.

The line should always walk across
the drills, and include a little of the last
beat in each new beat, for birds often
run back on to the old ground. On the
outer flank, which is moving over com-
pletely new ground, the gun should be
on the outside, while on the inner flank
one or two beaters should be ' making
good' the edge of the last beat, outside
the flank gun.

The line must often be slanted at an
angle to suit the wind or the proximity
of a boundary fence. The party must
be well drilled, and the intervals and
line preserved throughout the evolutions,
the guns walking a pace or so in front of
the line of beaters, and about 50 yards
apart.

Picking up is a difficulty, and it

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 221

simplifies matters considerably if the
beaters on either side of a gun are taught
to mark alternate birds as they are shot
and put in a thin stick, carried for the
purpose, to mark the exact fall of each
bird, as the line comes up to the place.
The line should never stand for long,
but should move on, leaving any birds
not picked at once to be dealt with by
the dog-man — by which is meant a keeper
whose sole duties for the day are picking
up, having no concern with the beaters
or the^shooting — a most valuable adjunct,
for have we not all kicked our heels for
half an hour in the middle of a beat
while the head-keeper's young retriever
had an ill-timed lesson in the difference
between a runner and a rabbit ? Some
system in picking up there must be, or
much loss both of dead birds and of
valuable time will inevitably result.

The pace set for the line must be
varied to suit the occasion ; in good
cover it cannot well be too slow, but
late in the season, when birds are wild

222 PARTRIDGES

and cover scanty, the line must needs
move at a fair round pace to get any-
where near tlie birds. At all times — as
the military text-books lay down for the
movements of all composite bodies — the
pace of the whole is regulated by that
of the slowest unit, and weight and age
must be treated with some consideration
in this respect.

' Half-mooning ' is a pleasing varia-
tion of walking in line, demanding more
skill in execution, both from guns and
beaters, to make it a success. It is a
manoeuvre best suited for a country
where large fields are the rule ; and can
be used to advantage in walking up
heaths, commons, or any stretches of
rough and uncultivated land. Where
fields are small it is no easy matter to
keep the proper formation, though this
difficulty may be overcome to some
extent by giving the beaters flags on
long poles, so that they remain visible to
each other even when a thick hedge
intervenes.

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 223

This is a capital way to outwit birds
late in the season, for though they would
not allow an ordinary line to get within
a quarter of a mile of them, they will
still lie like stones when once they feel
that they are surrounded. The * half-
moon ' is also a very useful expedient to
fall back upon when a high wind makes
successful driving near impossible ; the
guns shoot all the better for being on
the move instead of shivering behind a
hedge, and every bird flushed will give
a sporting and difficult chance to some one
as it swings back with the wind. To
' half-moon ' a large field the line first
deploys down the narrow end, covering
the whole width of it. When all are
in position, a signal is given from the
centre of the line, and the two flank guns
start walking down the outside fences,
followed at regular intervals of 10 yards
or so by each successive pair of beaters
or guns in turn, the centre gun moving
off* last of all, when the half-circle is
complete. The birds that rise wild as

224 PARTRIDGES

the centre advances are dealt with by the
forward guns on the flanks, while the
centre guns — although they naturally
cannot shoot at birds rising in front of
them — get some very prett^^ shooting at
birds breaking back from the horns of
the crescent.

Whether undertaken on a large or
a small scale — and the numbers engaged
may be anything from six to sixty — the
beaters must always be thoroughly drilled,
and the guns such as may be absolutely
relied on never to fire a dangerous shot
under any circumstances, if the manoeuvre
is to be carried out both with success
and safety.

Five minutes' explanation with a pencil
and half a sheet of paper will show any
but the stupidest of beaters the part he
has to play. Without some such pre-
caution, if the men do not understand
clearly what is wanted of them, the
whole performance rapidly degenerates
into farce, which the presence of a gun
who is at all likely to lose his head in

f..

Towered."'

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 225

the heat of action may easily turn into
tragedy.

The one disadvantage of this method,
apart from the care in execution it entails,
is that the birds cannot be pushed on in
the direction that they are wanted to
go with any certainty, for it may well
happen that as many will squat and
eventually go back as will rise wild and
go forward.

In the good old days when turnips were
sown broadcast, when hedges were rough
and tangled, and the sickle left the stubble
knee-deep after harvest, the pointer or the
setter was an inevitable accompaniment
of partridge-shooting. The trim hedge-
rows and close-shorn stubbles of modern
farming give no scope for shooting over
dogs on the manors of the south, yet
nothing but the fact that they have gone
out of fashion — reason enough for nine-
tenths of the imitative human race —
prevents the profitable employment of
dogs in many a wilder country where
good holding cover is always plentiful.

15

226 PARTRIDGES

Even without keeping a regular kennel
and following this beautiful sport in ortho-
dox manner, most owners of partridge-
shooting would still find a steady pointer
a useful addition to their kennels. On
big days the dog would not be of very
much use, though even then one cannot
see why he should not be employed to
save the beaters from walking over birds
in thick cover; while on all 'marauding'
days, when two or three guns and as
many keepers constitute the whole party,
the presence of a good dog makes the
work very much easier, provided that
the coveys are not unduly wild. Perhaps
a single covey is flushed and marked
down in a big turnip-field late in the
afternoon ; there is not likely to be
another bird there, for they will all be
out on the stubbles. The dog would
find this covey in a few minutes, whereas,
wanting his assistance, the little party
of humans must needs waste half an
hour or more tramping up and down the
field, before the birds are at last flushed

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 227

— if they are ever flushed at all, which
is by no means certain, for so small a
party covers a narrow front, round which
there is plenty of room for the birds to
run and get left behind.

The best stamp of dog for the work
is not the stylish high-bred dog who dashes
off at a rare pace and knocks up after an
hour's work ; a less showy dog is often
better for the purpose, chosen not so
much for his looks as for the points
that bespeak good stamina — a dog well
proportioned, light and strong for his
size, with good shoulders and powerful
legs. Apart from his staying powers,
the pointer or setter should have a good
nose and be well under control, and if he
is taught to retrieve, so much the better.
Such a, dog will still be found to earn his
keep well on most partridge estates.

While pointers and setters may still
play an important part on bye days, to
the retriever there must always fall the
lion's share of work in partridge-shooting
under modern conditions. For many

228 PARTRIDGES

years the poor quality of the work done
by retrievers in the field was a common
cause of complaint in the shooting world.
In this respect, it is very satisfactory to
be able to record a marked advance of
late years. This improvement is, without
doubt, due to the beneficial influence
exercised by the various Field Trials
Associations. Field trials are often the
subject of severe criticism ; their advan-
tages to sportsmen in general are often
questioned, and it is pointed out that the
education of a dog for ordinary sporting
purposes has little in common with the
special training which results in a win at
the trials. This is probably to a certain
extent true, under the keen competition
that now prevails, but after all it really
matters but little whether the individual
field trial winner may or may not be a
useful dog for practical purposes ; the
fact remains that the trials annually held
all over the country have certainly
been instrumental in raising the general
standard of retrievers' work.

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 229

Most keepers now get the chance of
watching the highly finished perform-
ances of champion dogs at the trials, and
thus come to realize that the retriever is
not such a fool after all, and that with
care and method in breaking, the normal
puppy will develop into a creature of
surprising intelligence.

Dog-breaking is not really a difficult
art, only it calls for more than the casual
kicks and kindness which is all some can
find time to bestow on their dogs. In
training a retriever, the first essential is
good treatment ; the dog soon knows
that his wants are well cared for, and the
beginning of a good understanding is
thus established. Then the trainer must
instil the principles of implicit obedience ;
the dog must understand that he has
found his master ; not the master — in-
comprehensible to the canine mind — who
at one time allows disobedience to pass
unchecked, and at another inflicts condign
punishment for the same mistake, but one
who gently but firmly corrects each fault.

230 PARTRIDGES

After that it is mainly a question of
patience and attention on the part of the
trainer ; most dogs are eager and keen to
learn their work if only their master is
consistent in his behaviour. In this con-
sistency lies the whole secret of success.
You are angry — the dog knows he has
done wrong ; you are pleased — the dog
understands that he has done well ; but
if you appear angry because your liver is
out of order, or pleased for some reason
no more connected with the business in
hand, the dog gives up trying to under-
stand you as a bad job, and another
* useless brute ' has been created through
no fault of his own. Throughout a dog's
education, kindness should always be the
rule, correction the exception. Before
using the whip, pause to ask yourself —
** Does the dog clearly realize why he is
being beaten ? " If you do not feel sure
of this, put the whip away ; for such
chastisement can only do harm and in-
duce a stubborn disposition. Should you
ever beat a dog to ease your own feelings,

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 231

and not with any view to his improvement
— an event of far too common occurrence
— you are distinctly not fit to have a dog
at all.

The shooting season is not the time
to train dogs ; if the keeper has been at
the pains to handle his young dog for
even half an hour a day through spring
and summer, working away quite quietly
with an old glove or a handkerchief, when
the autumn comes the dog will be ready
to step straight into his proper place as a
useful and trustworthy member of the
shooting party.

Personally I must confess to having a
strong aversion to shooting partridges
under a kite at any time ; it somehow
seems that one is taking an unfair advan-
tage in enlisting such adventitious aid to
one's own efforts. When birds must be
had for the pot — and it is then that the
use of the kite is often recommended —
they are surely never so wild that a few
brace cannot be got by some happy com-
bination of driving, walking, and stalking.

232 PARTRIDGES

I can well remember sending out a
friend on my own ground to try and get
a brace or so for the house on a short
winter's day. The fields were bare, the
partridges very wild and not over-plenti-
ful; yet by means of some very clever
work by my friend, who was young,
active, and a born poacher, the keeper,
who was always full of resource on a
* mooching ' day, and the old retriever,
who would drive a turnip-field as well as
half-a-dozen beaters, no less than 17 brace
of partridges found their way into the bag
before the end of the day.

As in every other form of shooting,
little advice of any real practical value
about shooting the partridge can be given
on paper, which will assist the beginner to
hold his own in the field. Every one can
learn, if he will, to be a good sportsman
— much misused word — even if he cannot
always learn to be a good shot, and the
standard of modern shooting is somewhat
exacting. Much may be learnt about
shooting at any of the shooting schools

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 233

which abound round London — marks-
manship ; much may be picked up by
having to work hard with a good keeper
for a small bag — woodcraft ; and many
hints may be taken by watching good
performers at work in the field — form.
The good sportsman — as we understand
the word — should not only possess some
modicum of these three qualities, marks-
manship, woodcraft and good form, but
he should in addition have learnt to be
master of himself at all times, cheerful
when things go wrong, making the best
of rough and smooth, and always doing
what he can to make the day a success.
We are all apt to grumble too much if
things are not exactly to our liking,
forgetting that * grousing' is not among
the best traditions of British sport — as
fine a code of honour as ever man
devised.

The last few years have seen consider-
able changes in the standard patterns of
our sporting guns. The modern nitro
powders are almost entirely consumed

234 PARTRIDGES

in the chamber, and the strength of the
guns that are turned out now lies in the
action and the breech, not some 8
inches down the barrels as was formerly
the case. For the same reason long
barrels are no longer necessary to ensure
a good pattern, and the tendency now is
to shorten the barrels to 28 inches to
get a better balance. Improved steel
barrels have superseded the Damascus,
and are now the best and safest to use.
For some reason almost all * best quality '
guns are now fitted with * side- locks ' ;
though *box locks' are simpler in con-
struction, and give a much pleasanter grip
to the gun. There can be but one word
of advice to any one who would buy a
gun — pay a good price for a good article,
and take care of it when you have got it.
Cheap guns and cheap cartridges are not
economical in the long-run, and the work
of our leading gunmakers well repays its
initial cost when tested by the wear and
tear of years.

It remains an open question whether

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 235

it is more difficult to be a good shot at
driven partridges than it was in the days
of walking and shooting over dogs. So
far as actual marksmanship is concerned,
there can be no comparison, for the
driven bird offers far more variety of
pace, angle, and curve, and can at times
be as difficult a mark as is ever presented
to the gun. On the other hand, things
are made very easy for the shooter, the
art of killing the normal driven bird with
fair certainty is largely a question of
practice, while any one may sometimes
find the simplest bird very easy to miss
after tramping over anything between ten
and twenty miles of turnips on a hot day
in September.

So far as the actual difficulties of
realizing every chance throughout the
day are in question, there is in all prob-
ability very little to choose one way
or the other. Yet, while there is small
satisfaction to be derived from missing
an easy chance because your foot is
balanced on a turnip, or weariness makes

236 PARTRIDGES

the gun slow in coming up, there are
driven birds — swinging and curling with
the wind — which are quite a pleasure to
miss to the ordinary performer.

There is one hint about shooting
which some may find worth considering
as an aid to accuracy. You cannot point
anything so true on an object as the
extended forefinger ; if you find it difficult
to bring the gun up right on the mark,
try shooting with the forefinger of the
left hand extended down the groove of
the rib below the barrels. It feels a
little awkward at first, but you will soon
get used to it ; and while it in no way
interferes with free and quick movement,
at the same time it certainly helps to
point the gun true without conscious
aiming.

In conclusion, some mention must be
made of the practice of 'tipping.' The
custom of * vails' is of immemorial
standing, and we must submit to it
with a good grace. Till very lately it
was the common practice to give a large

PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 237

gratuity after a pheasant shoot, and base
your donation on a nnuch smaller scale
after a day with the partridges. This
was doubtless connected with the old
idea that partridges required little atten-
tion ; but as under modern conditions it
takes just as much time and trouble to
look after partridge ground properly as
it does to rear pheasants, it is to be hoped
that sportsmen will be more impartial in
their recognition of the man who pro-
vides their sport.

The practice of tipping by results is
almost universal, though, personally, I
can see little justice in it. I would
always rather use my own judgment as
to whether the keeper has done his best
with the means at his disposal and give
accordingly, without considering whether
the bag is 100 brace or 500.

In this connection it may not be amiss
to remind those who find their pleasure
in shooting that there is a society^ in

1 The Keepers' Benefit Society, 236 Regent Street,
London, W. Secretary, Mr. William W^hitmore.

238 PARTRIDGES

existence for providing for the widows
and families of gamekeepers who lose
their lives in the protection of game, and
for pensioning keepers who are no longer
fit for work on account of old age or
accident. The Keepers' Benefit Society
is under the patronage of His Majesty
the King, and many prominent sports-
men figure on the committee.

Such a deserving object should surely
enlist the ready sympathy of sportsmen,
and if only all who took out a game
licence would subscribe even half-a-crown
to the funds of the Society, the scope
of its beneficial work would be vastly
increased.

CHAPTER VIII

DRIVING

The broad rules which govern successful driving — The
difficulties which arise in their application^ and how
they can be overcome — Beaters, flankers, and guns,
their right disposition and duties — The cost of
driving.

"... the * guns ^ being stationed in more or less
concealment at one end of the field, . . . which is
entered from the other by men or boys who deploy
into line and walk across it making a noise."

Thus the Encyclopcedia Britannica
(Ninth Edition) on the subject of partridge-
driving, and the operation sounds as simple
as anything well can be ; but that this ease
of execution is more apparent than real let
any one bear witness who has ever tried
to drive partridges on virgin soil, and is
hardly likely to have forgotten the diffi-
culties and disappointments attendant on

239

240 PARTRIDGES

his initial efforts. To drive partridges
as they should be driven is a high art,
of which there are in all probability not
more than a score of masters in this
country who join to natural aptitude
and long experience that infinite capacity
for taking pains which alone can bring
performance within measurable distance
of perfection.

To drive partridges well enough for
all practical purposes is within the reach
of any man of average intelligence and
energy if he be willing to take it up in
a business-like manner.

Partridge-driving seems to have begun
in a very small way about the middle of
last century on Suffolk manors. Here
certain sportsmen, no longer on the sunny
side of fifty, found toiling all day after the
evasive Frenchman a doubtful pleasure,
and tried resting their weary limbs under
a fence while the keepers walked round
and brought the birds up to them. The
idea once started soon spread through
Suffolk, the great stronghold of the red-

Retrievi'K on W'oi ndhd Bird.

DRIVING 241

leg, but was pooh - poohed by all the
wiseacres in the neighbouring county
of Norfolk, where the leading lights of
the shooting world continued to walk
their birds in line, long after driving was
a common practice across their borders.

At first the guns used to stand under
the hedge with their backs to the drive,
and shoot at the birds only after they
had passed ; this made shooting very
awkward (as any one knows who has
had occasion to try it through the
exigencies of the line compelling him
to stand right up to a fence which he
could neither see over or through), and
the chief objection urged against driving
was the difficulty of hitting the birds.
Then some one discovered how far easier
and more effective it was to face the
drive, take what birds he could coming
towards him and swing round after the
others, and the better results thus obtained
gradually led to a general adoption of
the new system.

In considering partridge-driving, some

16

242 PARTRIDGES

comparison with the sister sport of grouse-
driving is inevitable. So far as direct
benefit to the ground is concerned, the
comparison is somewhat unfavourable to
the partridge, for while driving on a moor
is beyond all doubt wholly beneficial to
the stock and is often attended by a
truly marvellous increase in the annual
yield, no such striking results must be
expected on partridge ground as the
direct outcome of the adoption of driving.
In the former case driving removes from
the moor numbers of old cocks and barren
hens, as destructive as the worst vermin,
and never even seen by the guns when
walking or shooting over dogs ; in the
latter instance, while some good must be
done by killing old birds, it is not certain
to what extent this influence affects the
stock. It is true that the yearly totals
killed at Holkham advanced from 3000
to 8000 within ten years of the adoption
of driving — true, and somewhat difficult
to explain ; indeed to determine with
any certainty how far driving may be

DRIVING 243

regarded as a factor in improvement, it
would be necessary to have access to
the records of two estates, the one
regularly driven and the other walked in
line or shot over dogs, but both under
the higher methods of preservation
(which may be roughly taken to mean
that the whole work is carried out on a
system, the nesting operations supervised,
assisted, and regulated, and change of
blood constantly effected). Comparison
between these records would place the
matter beyond doubt, but there seems to
be no estate fulfilling these conditions
on which driving is not the rule. Only
a word of warning in this context : some
have gone so far as to say that the
Holkham totals ** settle for ever the
question as to the effect of driving upon
the totals of a partridge manor " ; ^ the
immeasurable good that can be wrought
by systematic preservation is beyond
all doubt, but for any to expect the
adoption of driving in itself to work

^ The Partridge, Fur and Feather Series, p. 218.

244 PARTRIDGES

wonders on their ground is to court
disappointment.

There is a fallacious theory that driv-
ing brings about a change of blood
among partridges. For * partridges '
read * grouse ' and the theory can be
accepted as fact, for grouse have not
the homing instinct so strongly developed,
and doubtless to some extent stay where
the end of a day's driving finds them ;
but the partridge, on the other hand, is
peculiarly local in its habits, and the
same covey, or its shattered fragments,
will after many drives always be found
back on their own ground. A good
way to kill off the old stock and retain
the young is to drive early in the season
on a hot day. After they have been
hustled about a bit the young birds will
not rise, and then practically all the
birds that go over the guns will be old
ones that the ground is better without.

In some respects it is easier to drive
grouse than partridges. On a moor, when
the right way of taking a drive has once

DRIVING 245

been discovered, the problem is finally
settled ; permanent butts are erected, and
year after year the same performance can
be repeated and improved on by taking
hints from what happened the time before ;
the keeper can burn the heather to suit the
drive, leaving good holding cover where
the birds are wanted to settle, till, in all
favourable weather, the success of the
drive is assured, only varying in degree
according to how the young birds have
fared in the spring.

In planning out partridge-driving, on
the other hand, there are no set pieces
to rely on ; the drive which proved so
killing one season may not admit of
repetition for four or five years, and with
the normal rotation of crops each autumn
presents a new set of problems in driving
to be dealt with. Besides demanding
more careful preparation of the pro-
ceedings, this makes it far more difficult
to place the guns aright, for while in a
grouse butt the occupant finds himself in
a position carefully selected to meet his

246 PARTRIDGES

requirements, the guns in a partridge
drive have often to make the best of
indifferent cover and a limited field of
view. On the other side, it may be
placed to the advantage of partridge-
driving that its operations are not quite
so much at the mercy of the wind. On
a moor, if the long sweeping drive of the
morning, which is intended to collect the
birds for the shorter drives of the after-
noon, is adversely affected by a wind
from the wrong quarter, the rest of the
day may quite well be completely spoilt ;
but in the more limited sphere of opera-
tions in the arable country, it is very rare
that the fate of the whole day can turn
on the result of a single drive.

A long purse can undoubtedly simplify
the problems of partridge - driving ; un-
fortunately it is equally the exception.
If you happen to be a millionaire, and
can afford to farm half your ground your-
self, arrange to have other land cultivated
to suit the shooting, plant belts to drive
the birds over, and make remises wherein

DRIVING 247

they will be certain to seek shelter when-
ever they are disturbed, the element of
uncertainty is practically eliminated.
But the narrow margin on which most
estates are managed in these hard times
necessitates the application of strict
economic principles, and rarely admits of
any consideration of shooting require-
ments. So most of us have to make the
best of things as we find them, and we
must lay our plans all the more carefully,
and leave as little as possible to chance.
Unfortunately it is exactly in those parts
of the country where natural dis-
advantages and comparative scarcity of
birds make the closest attention to every
detail essential to any measure of success,
that careless and haphazard ways of
going about the business seem most to
prevail. For walking in line has quite
gone out of fashion in the last ten years ;
driving is almost universal, and though
in all great partridge centres long practice
has made of it a finished art, there remain
hundreds of estates in remoter districts

248 PARTRIDGES

where driving, though regularly practised,
does not receive a tithe of the attention
it demands.

Flat and open country, with large
fields and just enough high hedges to
shelter the guns, is best suited for driving.
Hilly and broken ground, or small fields,
make it difficult to control the flight of
the birds. When partridges, on being
flushed, can at once see the whole line of
beaters, they are far more likely to fly in
the required direction than when a fold
in the ground or a thick fence bounding
a small field conceals all but the nearest
beaters from view. Hilly country has
its own advantages too ; a greater variety
of sporting and difficult shots are pre-
sented to the guns, and the owner can,
as it were, eat his cake and have it too,
for a fair stock of birds on 1000 acres of
his ground will give two or three days'
sport in the season, drive he never so
wisely, while a skilful driver with the
same number of birds on a like acreage
in an easier country would leave little

DRIVING 249

more than a breeding stock at the end of
a single day's shooting, killing perhaps
two-thirds of the birds on the ground.

In planning out any day's driving, the
first question which arises is how many
birds there are on the ground, the answer
to which can only be supplied by the
keeper on the beat, who presumably has
been using his eyes and — if his master
has ever made him a very useful present
— his field-glasses.

The task of forming anything like a
correct estimate of the birds on a beat is
certainly no easy matter. Appearances
are deceptive, and many keepers will tell
you that it cannot be done without
working a pointer over the ground. But
the fact remains that an intelligent and
observant man, taking careful notes before
the disturbance of harvest, can form an
opinion which is accurate enough for all
practical purposes. Then the drives are
considered and settled on, each being
treated as part of the general scheme,
which is to collect all the birds from the

250 PARTRIDGES

surrounding country into one place where
they can be broken up and * hammered.'
Unbroken coveys always try to get back
to their own ground when they are being
pushed far away from home, but once
the covey is broken up, the single birds
will go wherever they are driven, and the
bag mounts apace when partridges are
once fairly broken up in good holding
cover. The natural instinct is to be
always pushing on to fresh ground and
fresh birds ; this is almost always a mis-
take, especially late in the day. Keepers
do not always realize that a drive with
only two scattered coveys in it will prob-
ably be more prolific in result, if the
twenty birds come singly over the guns,
than the alternative of a drive off new
ground where there may be half-a-dozen
unbroken coveys, which will most likely
all come over in a swarm and escape with
the loss of two or three birds. As a
general rule, unless a beat has to be
spared in a bad season, it pays best to
make the work of the afternoon as far as

DRIVING 251

possible a repetition of the drives of the
morning.

The drives should be finally settled on
the ground, and the various lines for the
guns determined in situ. In this diffi-
cult question of placing the guns nothing
should be left to chance. If it be
left to an unexperienced keeper to settle
where the guns are to stand, he will
probably place them scattered about in
* likely spots' down the whole side of a
field ; while if the guns are simply asked
to line down a fence from a fixed point,
they are sure to divide the distance un-
equally, and in either case some guns will
be found to be 60 or 80 yards apart.
With such intervals, the number of birds
which must be wounded and lost in a
day is not pleasant to think of, for birds
coming low between two guns are almost
out of shot before they have safely
cleared the line, while others coming up
to an unguarded part of the fence swing
down it to pass through the line at an
acute and difficult angle. A little

252 PARTRIDGES

method in arrangement easily disposes
of this danger ; guns should be not much
more than 45 yards apart, so that each
may have a fair chance of killing every
bird clean that comes to him, and of
stopping any wounded bird that is carry-
ing on from his neighbour. This is most
important when birds are scarce, for then
the odd covey that can be put over the
line must give a chance to two or three
guns, instead of sneaking through a wide
gap without offering a fair shot to any one.
So in planning the drives, you have
only to reckon the number of guns there
will be, allow 45 yards for each, and thus
determine the limits of the line. If you
have six guns, you can reckon that they
will cover 270 yards of fence, and it only
remains to decide which 270 yards can be
most profitably utilized. The placing of
guns is not an easy matter ; they must
have cover, and the hedge you wish to
line may provide none ; they must be in
a straight line, and the hedge often turns
at an angle most inconvenient to your

DRIVING 258

dispositions ; or the obvious place for the
guns may be out in the open without
any fence at all handy. Some form of
temporary butt or shelter may then be
put up, preferably a little time before the
shooting ; even then, if there happen to
be grazing stock or horses in the same
field, these erections will be demolished
at once, and then some form of portable
shelter must be resorted to. These im-
provisations are never wholly satisfactory;
they inevitably flap about in a high wind,
and having no chameleon-like qualities,
must, in unfavourable surroundings,
appear to the birds as a somewliat novel
object in the landscape ; only they are
infinitely better than no cover at all,
which is often the only alternative ; for
nothing turns birds so quickly as the
pallid countenance of man, besides which
some freedom of movement, when birds
are coming, is essential to good shooting.
The shelter illustrated here^ has the

^ These screeus were supplied to the writer's order by
Messrs. Hellis & Sons, 119 Edgware Road, London,

254

PARTRIDGES

merits of being comparatively incon-
spicuous, simple to put up and take

THE PORTABLE SCREEN IN USE

down, strong in construction yet easily

from whom they may be obtained. The writer may add
that he has no interest^ financial or otherwise^ in their
sale.

SCREEN FOLDED FOR TRANSPORT

256

PARTRIDGES

carried about — the latter an important
consideration. It measures 4 ft. 6 in.
by 5 ft., and weighs about S^ lbs.
The screen is of light canvas stained in
two different shades of neutral tint, and
is carried on thin lancewood shafts, sup-
ported by guy ropes of fine piano wire.

^ji

Bracken, branches, or long grass may be
easily fixed to the top of the screen
through loops provided for the purpose,
breaking the outline and assimilating
the whole more closely to its natural
surroundings. Where wattled hurdles
are available this difficulty may be met
by fixing stakes in position the day before

The Last Drive of the Season*.

I

DRIVING 257

the shoot, so that a keeper can put up
six or seven hurdles in a few minutes,
slipping iron rings over the end of the
hurdle and the fixed stake as shown in
the diagram.

In settling where the guns are to
stand when lining a hedge, you must
first decide whether it is best for the
guns to stand right up to the hedge or
right back from it ; all the places may
not be equally favoured, and if left to
their own devices, there often arises
difference of opinion between some who
would like to stand back and others who
find that considerations of cover demand
that they should be close up to the fence ;
this generally results in an unhappy
compromise ; every one feels cramped
and uncomfortable, which fact is duly
reflected in their shooting.

A few feet — I had almost said inches
— backwards or forwards makes the
whole difference to the ease and execu-
tion of a gun, and so everything points
to the necessity of providing beforehand

17

258 PARTRIDGES

some clear indication of the exact position
that each gun is supposed to occupy in
the drive.

The distances between guns must
often be varied to suit the exigencies of
the drive. Thus the diagram shows the
position of the guns for a drive over a
heavily timbered fence. The small letters
show the pegs as they would be were
they marked out by rule at regular

intervals. But the gun at 'c' would
get little or no shooting, for birds always
avoid flying over the high trees ; so this
part of the line may be safely disregarded,
and the guns placed as shown by the
capital letters. Attention to such details
makes all the difference to the general
success of the day. However well they
may see where they ought to be standing,
it is impossible for individual guns to
alter their position to suit their own
convenience, and their proper disposition

DRIVING 259

can only be ensured by arranging things
beforehand.

The guns should be numbered from
right to left, changing places after each
drive to give every one his turn of the
shooting ; for if the driving be good, the
keeper will aim at putting every bird
over the centre of the line, and should
the three central guns not get the bulk
of the shooting, there is probably some-
what amiss with the driving. It is usual
for the guns to move two places each
change when their numbers exceed four ;
then no one has to take outside numbers
twice in succession. So, in marking out
the drives, a cleft stick with a card
bearing the number in the line serves as
a ready guide to all, and prevents the
confusions and misunderstandings which
otherwise will be found inevitable.

The lie of the ground is often not
allowed sufficient importance in determin-
ing where to place guns. There seems
to be an almost universal tendency to
insist on the line being marked out on

260 PARTRIDGES

the ground by a hedge or wall. It is
quite surprising to find how slight and
unnoticed a depression will completely
conceal a line of guns, and, in undulating
country, when the fence of the field you
are driving happens to be awkwardly
placed for shooting from, a comparatively
ineffective drive can often be turned into
a very killing one by moving the line a
short distance forwards or backwards and
making use of a dip in the ground, or by
putting up a line of butts 30 yards behind
the offending fence.

A keeper is naturally inclined to
devote the whole of his thoughts to his
own part of the business, and is apt to
think that if the birds are brought over
the guns, it is not his fault if the pick up
at the end of the drive is small, forgetting
that no gun can be expected to do him-
self justice if he is placed where he can
neither see well nor move freely. Of
course if you have a tall belt of firs, a
narrow valley, or a railway cutting on
the ground, you should dodge the drives

DRIVING 261

about to make full use of these natural
advantages ; for when the birds are ' well
up,' not only do they give the prettiest
of shooting, but the general execution is
much improved, the guns then being able
to take the birds when nearest to them,
without having to consider the safety of
their neighbours.

After planning out the ten or twelve
drives for the day, having in view a calm
day or a continuance of the prevailing
wind, you have then to face the possibility
of one from the opposite direction. To
meet this contingency some alternative
plan of campaign is necessary, for the
importance of wind as a factor in the
day's proceedings cannot well be over-
estimated, and to reckon without it is
indeed flying in the face of providence.
The difficulty is best overcome by having
two trysts for the morning, one for
normal conditions and the other to fall
back on if the wind shifts to another
quarter in the interim. The prearranged
drives can then still be made use of, only

262 PARTRIDGES

altered in sequence to suit the changed
order of the day. Besides this, you must
always be prepared to depart from your
carefully elaborated schemes if the birds
do not fall in with them ; it is like war
on a small scale, the enemy's army is
your true objective, and his cities and
strongholds, represented in this case by
fields of turnip, mustard, or rape, lose all
true value and remain only a snare and a
delusion when the birds have betaken
themselves elsewhere. This seemingly
trivial point demands and deserves close
consideration, for it is not an easy move
in the game to depart boldly from the
ordered sequence of events, and turn
aside after a big lot of birds that have
gone the wrong way. Not easy, but
almost always worth while, unless you
have great numbers of birds all over the
ground ; for the coveys have probably
been broken up by going once over the
guns, and scattered birds are what make
a killhig drive. The difficulty of this, as
of every other manoeuvre in driving, is

DllIVING 263

vastly increased if you are working in a
country where grass-fields abound and
turnips and stubbles are few and far
between. Your birds are then fewer
and harder to find, and you cannot well
afford to pass on and leave a big lot of
birds behind you ; on the other hand, the
field of your operations is vastly increased
when a mile is the normal distance
between turnip-fields ; your lunch is at
some farm - house perhaps nearer two
miles than one from where the bulk of
the birds have gone, and it will indeed
have to be a movable feast, in more
senses than one, if the shooting considera-
tions are to come first.

The writer speaks feelingly of this not
uncommon type of country, where it
takes perhaps 1500 acres, containing only
some half-dozen turnip-fields, to make a
day's driving, for these are the conditions
in his own county in the west of Scotland,
where he may claim to have been the
pioneer of driving. Here redoubled
vigilance is necessary to keep your birds,

264 PARTRIDGES

and as every grass-field is studded with
whinny knowes and rushy hollows, the
way birds get * squandered' and lost
between the drives is marvellous. To
any who have to deal with similar condi-
tions, it may be useful to point out that
some success may be assured by handling
the birds very carefully in the turnips.
Having collected every possible bird into
a large field of good holding cover — and
in our damp climate the turnips grow
high and thick — the beaters move very
slowly down the field with the flanks
pushed well in advance, almost reaching
the line of guns before the centre is half-
way down the field. If all goes well,
when the line of beaters has come within
80 yards of the end of the field, most of
the coveys are still between them and the
guns ; these birds, having heard the shoot-
ing in front, and the men passing them
on either flank, now become aware of the
beaters coming on behind them, and
feeling completely hemmed in, almost
invariably squat. Then the line coming

DRIVING 265

on very slowly, and working every inch
of the cover, flushes each bird singly.
Such a drive takes time, but we have
often opened the day by killing 60 or 70
head at one stand, where we should cer-
tainly not have realized a quarter as
much had we taken the drive at an
ordinary pace and flushed the coveys
entire. In a rough country, where you
cannot make certain of seeing your birds
again, this method seems almost the only
way of realizing at least one lot of birds,
and with due precaution will be found to
answer, so long as there is enough cover
left, even as late as the beginning of
December.

Another constant danger is the wind.
In autumn and winter the south-west
wind is always with us, or within easy
reach ; and while this means that every
bird he kills will give the moderate
performer a glow of satisfaction, it does
add considerably to the difficulties of
handling the birds to know that when
you flush a covey it will probably swing

266 PARTRIDGES

a mile with the wind before thinking of
settling again. In a country where three
fields out of four are cultivated, about
800 acres of ground carrying a fair stock
should make a day's driving. Two sets
of beaters, if they are under good dis-
cipline, very materially increase the
amount of ground you can cover, for if
their movements are well timed, one
drive then follows hard on the heels of
the next, the second lot of beaters being
already in position for the ensuing drive,
while the first drive is still in progress.
If the command is then still to be vested
in one man's hands, he should be mounted,
or time will be wasted between the drives.
With one set of beaters, it is well to
make a square of the drives, four drives
each at right angles to the last, the
fourth bringing you back to where you
originally started. The same drives can
then be taken in the reverse order, giving
eight drives in all, each helping the next,
and all using the same birds. A detached
party should always be working ahead,

DRIVING 267

helping the following drive by bringing
in all the birds off the surrounding fields
into the turnip-field that is to be driven.
The drives cannot well be too short in
the earlier part of the season ; later on in
the year the birds take much longer
flights, and more extended drives are
advisable.

Every endeavour should be made to
get the beaters interested in the work ;
nor is this hard, if they once get to under-
stand the game, for partridge-driving can
be great fun to every one who takes part
in it, even without a gun, and men and
boys, if they once get keen about the
business, will drop the idea of doing as
little as they can to earn their half-crown
or five shillings, and work with a will to
bear their share in outmanoeuvring the
birds. The human voice is a fatal adjunct
to partridge-driving, and any vocal efforts
on the part of keepers or beaters must
be checked at the outset. * Clappers,'
however, are sometimes very useful,
especially early in the season, for they

268 PARTRIDGES

help to keep the birds moving on in front
of the beaters and not rising at their feet
and turning back. The beater carries
his clapper in one hand, and shakes it,
and the result of the whole line using
them at once is like the twittering of ten
thousand sparrows. The chief difficulty
with untrained beaters is to induce them
to keep the crescent formation which is
so necessary to successful driving ; each
man likes to keep in line with his neigh-
bours on either side, and it takes time
and trouble to impress on them the right
way they should go. They must also
understand how important it is to keep
their proper intervals ; gaps in the line
are what birds are always seeking to find
when they are averse to facing the music
in front, and want to break back.

It is true economy to deal generously
with your beaters ; not as regards money,
for in fairness to your neighbours the
regular tariff obtaining in the district
must always be adhered to ; nor indeed
would any increase of wage be half so

DRIVING 269

much appreciated as those small provisions
for their comfort which bespeak a kindly
consideration for their welfare. A bowl
of hot broth, or a dish of steaming stew
after a long and cold morning, puts fresh
heart into a man, and a cup of tea and a
bun when the day is over are very grate-
ful to lads with a long trudge home in
the dark before them. Besides these
attentions to the inner man, stout and
serviceable smocks cost little, and issued
to the beaters in cold and wet weather,
form a welcome supplement to clothes
often thin and little suited for the business
in hand. Such little provisions for their
well-being, and a friendly word of thanks
after a good day's work, go far to promote
a general feeling of goodwill to your
sport; and it is a pity that some would
seem to look on their beaters only as
so many machines they have hired for
the day.

To flank a partridge drive properly is
no easy matter ; hedges or a fold in the
ground often intervene to impede the

270 PARTRIDGES

view, and as flankers must in many cases
be placed close in to the drive if they are
to act at all, they have to be very careful
not to expose themselves, lying * doggo '
till the critical moment when one well-
timed wave of the flag turns the covey
which was edging out of the drive back
over the guns. Unlike poets, flankers are
made and not born, and it is quite useless
to expect a man to flank a drive by the
light of nature ; for a man's natural instinct
seems to be to plant himself solidly in a
commanding position, where it is to be
supposed every bird in the field is intended
to notice him and say to itself : " Ah, I
see a man on that knoll ; I shall not fly
that way if these clodhoppers behind
disturb me again." In point of fact, if
birds can see the man with the flag all the
time, they treat his efforts with indifference
when other danger becomes pressing and
they wish to quit the scene in his direction.
So the flanker must be taught that his duty
for the most part is to remain completely
hidden, and only to appear as a sudden

DRIVING 271

and startling bar to further progress
when birds are thinking of breaking. He
must refrain from over-flanking, a common
and annoying practice, remembering that,
in the interests of later drives, any-
thing is better than that birds should go
back. Thus it may often be too risky to
attempt to flank birds which are going
forward, although they may be going to
pass wide of the guns. In the interests
of their health, flankers should make sure
that the guns realize where they are
placed before the drive begins, especially
if the line happens to be standing up to
a low fence. It is usually best and safest
for all concerned that the flankers should
accompany the guns and be posted by
the host. Sometimes, and especially in
districts where the fields in crop are at all
widely separated, a flanker, very carefully
placed well behind the line, may be a
useful adjunct to the drive ; besides helping
the birds on the way they are wanted to
go, he can make himself very useful as a
marker, noting carefully where birds are

272 PARTRIDGES

making for, and the exact spot where any
cripples or towered birds fall.

It is well to avoid ever driving into
turnips, or from one turnip - field into
another adjacent one, for the difficulty
of picking up the birds after the drive
then becomes serious in any case, and well-
nigh insuperable if the roots are high and
the scent bad. The picking up must always
be systematic ; a tally kept of the total
number of birds seen by the guns to fall
at each drive, so that no time may be lost
in looking for birds already gathered by
some one else, and no little heaps of slain
forgotten and left under the hedge. If
the guns have not all dogs of their own,
keepers must be specially told off to
stay with the guns all day and be respon-
sible for the disposition of the slain. The
keepers in charge of the driving line have
no time to bother their heads about picking
up dead birds at all. As soon as the
drive is in, they have all their work cut
out to collect the beaters, and get them
started at once for the next drive.

Tiiii \'alley of Death. "

DRIVING 273

111 theory the beaters should never
be allowed to appear on the scene at all
while picking up is going on. They are
only an unmitigated nuisance, taking the
wind from the dogs and interfering with
their work, and casually picking up birds
unknown to any one, which same birds
are then diligently sought for in vain by
the shooter. In practice, however, it may
be as well to allow the drivers to come
forward and pick up the dead birds. Their
presence must then be tolerated on the
ground that it is a distinct satisfaction to
them to pick up some of the bag, without
which the day's walking becomes very dull.

When the bag can be reckoned by the
hundred, some attention to the question
of transport is necessary, so that the birds
may arrive home cool and in good con-
dition. Some light form of game van
with a cover should be employed, well
ventilated, and designed so that the birds
can be quickly yet neatly hung up, and
not just dumped down to get all crushed
and heated in transit. The simplest plan

18

274 PARTRIDGES

is to put the birds straight into ' carriers,'
each holding twenty or thirty birds, and
fasten the carriers straight into the cart ;
some method of hooking them up being
easy to devise. The total may then
readily be reckoned at any time by
checking the number of full carriers, the
bag may be well displayed at lunch time
by simply lifting the full carriers out and
propping them up on standards, and all
unnecessary handling of the birds is thus
avoided.

While on still days the crescent forma-
tion is the best for the driving line to
adopt, whenever the wind is blowing
with any force from a flank or against
the drive, the greatest care is necessary
to adopt an appropriate formation. The
first diagram shows the method of driv-
ing a turnip-field with a cross head-wind.
The whole secret of the drive is to force
the birds into the up-wind corner of the
field. Once this is accomplished — and
it is possibly the most difficult manoeuvre
in driving, demanding careful and skilful

276 PARTRIDGES

handling of the line — all then rests with
the flanker. If he plays his part well,
almost every covey can be sent over the
line in a slanting direction, offering a
chance to each gun in turn as it swings
down the line. A possible objection to
this drive would be that the birds were
driven away from the direction in which
they were wanted to go ; but with a
strong side-wind they would probably
swing round with the wind in any case,
even if they could be brought straight
over the guns.

Diagrams 2 and 3 show the same field,
this time driven against a head-wind —
a manoeuvre only possible after the ground
has been filled by several down-wind
drives. The second diagram shows how
fatal the normal crescent formation would
prove in this case. The results of moving
with the flanks thrown forward would be
an ill-timed exposition of the advantages
of the half-moon method for walking
up-wind, and the bulk of the birds would
inevitably go straight back over the

DRIVING 277

driving line. The third diagram shows
the right way to carry out this drive ;
the flanks are hardly advanced at all, the
line being practically straight ; no flankers
are posted. A few birds will probably
turn straight back over the beaters' heads,
but the bulk of the birds — homeward
bound — may be relied on to go straight
over the guns.

The guns should always do their share
towards making the day a success, by
paying a reasonable amount of attention
to the work in hand. They can help
matters considerably by responding readily
to instructions and generally showing
some interest in the proceedings. No-
thing is more annoying to a host who is
anxious to get on to the next drive
than to find that some couple have
wandered off in quite the wrong direction,
deeply engaged in earnest discussion, and
entirely oblivious of the flight of precious
time. Between drives, guns ought to
be carried unloaded ; shooting at odd
birds when moving to a new stand is

278 PARTRIDGES

dangerous work and should never be
allowed. Partridges have a marked dis-
like to the human voice, and the host's
injunction to move quietly into their
places should be strictly complied with
by his guests.

The fourth diagram shows a success-
ful morning's driving off some 500 acres
of well-cultivated land with 600 to 700
birds on it, six guns and about thirty
beaters taking part. As will be seen on
the plan, the first two drives are sweeping-
in manoeuvres to collect the birds, and
helped by the wind should result in the
mass of the birds being pushed across the
road during the second drive. The guns
then occupy the hedge marked as 'final
position.' Half the beaters bring the
roots next the road over the guns, while
the other half get round the far side of
the farther root field. The guns then
face about, now lining the other side of
the fence for the fourth drive ; this is
the first drive with an adverse wind, but
the birds are all making homewards and

DRIVING

279

should come on well. By now, however,
the birds must have suffered pretty-
heavily, and so new birds are pressed into

Boundary

DIAGRAM 4

the service. The first lot of beaters have
crossed the main road and are bringing
up all the fields from the boundary fence,
the guns resuming their places of the

280 PARTRIDGES

third drive. Finally, the second lot of
beaters repeat the fourth drive, the newly
broken birds of the preceding drive
being again made use of. There are no
features of peculiar interest in this ex-
ample ; only it serves as an instance of
ground worked on the right lines. The
long drives are the two first ones, which
bring the mass of the birds down-wind,
collecting them on ground where they
can be * harried.' Then in the last two
drives a new lot of birds are brought in
without losing 'grip' of the broken and
scattered coveys of the previous drives.
In a case like this the day must be divided
into two parts, each complete in itself.
Where possible, it is generally better to
make the whole day one campaign, and
end in the evening where you started
in the morning, but naturally local con-
ditions do not always admit of this. The
only other point in this example which
calls for remark is that it is not advisable,
where it can be avoided, to drive several
times over the same fence, for the birds

DRIVING 281

in time realize the danger zone and avoid
it.

Having once started regular driving
on a shooting, any one who would im-
prove his methods from year to year
must be prepared to admit himself in
the wrong, and never rest till he has
worried out for himself where the mis-
take lay. Nothing is more hopeless for
future prospects than to find — and the
case is common — that the man who has
just committed errors, palpable to any
one with the most superficial knowledge
of the subject, is wrapped in an im-
penetrable fog of self-deception. The
wind, the birds, the weather, or the ground
must all, in varying degree, bear the
blame for want of success ; when all else
fails, ' bad luck ' will be called upon, like
charity, to cover the multitude of sins.
Only the true causes, lack of method and
disregard of the few and simple rules,
will never be given a second's considera-
tion in this complacent mind. *Gie us
a guid conceit o' oorsels ' is not the spirit

282 PARTRIDGES

in which to undertake to inaugurate a
novel and difficult practice; a conscious-
ness of one's own ignorance at the outset
is essential to any real progress, and if
the beginner be only honest with him-
self, he will be surprised how often he
can bring the failures home to his own
door.

Of course there are times when things
will go wrong in spite of the best-laid
plans ; how bitter the disappointment,
then, to the right sort of keeper when
he sees the weather taking charge, and
all control passing from his hands, let
one instance serve to show. It was an
October day in a northern county ; the
estate was small, but the outlook hopeful
for a grand day with the partridges, for
the dispositions were beyond reproach,
the beaters intelligent and skilfully
handled, the guns well placed, and the
very boundary fences had been carefully
* flagged ' their whole length with old
newspapers. But no sooner was the
sport fairly begun than the wind rose

DRIVING 283

and the rain fell. Right manfully did
the keeper struggle on against adversity,
though all to no purpose ; every covey that
rose was swept across the boundary over
the beaters' heads, and no handling of the
birds was possible. After lunch the host
called for the keeper, to discuss whether
any further shooting was worth while.
But the keeper was not forthcoming,
and it was only after a prolonged search
that he was discovered dead drunk and
peacefully slumbering in the seclusion
of a ditch. Let it not be imputed to
him for a sin ; he was a temperate man
in the ordinary walks of life, only the
trials of the morning had proved too
much to bear, and obliged to own himself
defeated, he had sought and found a
merciful oblivion in the best part of a
bottle of neat whisky. Without wishing
to advocate such extreme measures, it
may be said that the success of the day
very largely depends on the organizer
taking his duties seriously.

Another natural and insidious error

284 PARTRIDGES

is for the native to fancy that he alone
knows all about the peculiar race of
partridges that live at Snoozleby, or
whatever his place may be called. The
victim of this delusion will read all the
collected wisdom of the experts on the
subject, and then, without putting their
precepts into practice, will confidently
assure you that — " It's all very well for
those fellows in Norfolk and Cambridge,
where they have — enumerating a list
of supposititious advantages denied to
Snoozleby — but it can't be done here ; I
know what our ground is, and 1 know what
our partridges can do " (they always fly
farther or run faster than any one else's
birds, or else just put their foot down and
decline to be driven).

There certainly are a few, very few,
countries where partridges can hardly
be driven to advantage, and then the
reason is patent and needs no explanation.
Not every type of country can be driven
with the same success, but almost every
stretch of arable land well handled can

DRIVING 285

show sport good enough to warrant the
attempt.

This singling out of individual localities
as extraordinary exceptions to the general
rule is very common in districts where
driving is still a novelty, so, for the
benefit of any who would lay this flatter-
ing unction to their souls, let us conclude
the chapter by propounding a short list
of rules, which, carefully and intelligently
followed, should, at least in our opinion,
ensure success almost anywhere, given
enough partridges to drive and scope of
ground to drive them on, but the neglect
of which will most assuredly mean failure
on any ground, be it the best-stocked
manor in Norfolk, or only some distant
lairdship in the north country.

1. The keeper must have a good idea
as to the numbers, distribution, and
natural flight of the birds on his ground
before the shooting begins ; before ground
is shot over he must also arrange with
the farmers that the ground is kept quiet
for the day.

286 PARTRIDGES

2. The day must be carefully planned
out beforehand with due regard to
questions of time and space, and there
must be alternative plans to adopt in case
of a contrary wind, for each drive must
help to collect the birds, and therefore
to start at the down- wind end of the
ground can never be right.

3. Birds must be driven and not
ground ; having found the birds, the
main object is to keep and use them ;
therefore where the birds go the drivers
must follow, even though this means
departing from the prearranged plan.

4. The beaters must be under control
and know something of their work.
Either all or none must carry flags ; an
odd flag here and there is worse than
useless. They must keep their intervals,
but must be ready to move in any forma-
tion. For there is no one golden rule
as to the shape of the driving line ; it
must be continually varied to suit the
wind, the lie of the ground, and the
way the birds would like to go.

DRIVING 287

5. There must be a keeper in the
centre of the beaters, who can easily
control their movements by a distinctive
flag ; the beaters must understand his
signals, so that he can bring on or hold
back any portion of the line at will. If
a working system of signals cannot be
arrived at, the keeper in charge must
be allowed to use his voice. This pre-
rogative he should exercise as rarely as
possible, for shouting or unnecessary
noise during the progress of a drive
is well calculated to spoil the whole
manoeuvre.

6. Some one, preferably the host, should
always be with the guns, and show each
one exactly where he has to take his
stand ; otherwise there is sure to be
confusion.

7. The question of how to pick up
the birds after the drive and who is to
do it, must be settled beforehand. The
beaters must not be relied on for this
work, for, though it may be sometimes
advisable to allow them to pick up for

288 PARTRIDGES

a few minutes in order to stimulate their
interest in the proceedings, yet as a rule
they should be well on their way to
take up their position for the next drive
while picking up is still going on. Neglect
of this point often means waste of many
precious half-hours in an already short
enough day.

8. Until the driving has been reduced
to a working system, owner and keeper
must hammer away at mastering the
rudiments of the business together ; the
former will have cheerfully to leave his
gun at home, resign his place in the line,
and personally supervise the driving and
the beaters, until it is clear that the
business is started on the right lines.

If any one can honestly say that he
has given driving a fair and extended
trial, observing strictly these cardinal
rules, and still found it a failure, there
is fair reason to suppose that his ground
is not ' drivable ' ; but a few casual essays
in a new and difficult practice warrant
no such off-hand conclusion.

DRIVING 289

The cost of driving varies beyond all
pov^er of striking any average. The rent
of partridge land may be sixpence or
three shillings an acre, the figure being
often determined by considerations quite
foreign to the actual shooting it affords.
Accessibility, social amenities, the popu-
larity of a district, all help to influence
the rent.

But in every case it is clear that
economy and efficiency are closely allied,
and the shooting accounts should be kept
in business-like fashion, however generous
the scale of expenditure. In a quiet
district it might be reckoned that a shoot-
ing affording six days of fair driving would
cost about £500 a year, but any such
estimate must be an uncertain guide ;
nor is it possible to give any details of
expenditure without laying oneself open
to severe criticism from those to whom
the figures did not happen to appeal

19

CHAPTER IX

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY

An hour after dawn on Old Michaelmas
day ; deep silence broods over all, and
a dense white mist blots out each feature
in the landscape, holding everything
wrapped in its chill embrace.

Not a leaf stirring, till presently a
careful tread becomes audible, and the
stalwart form of an underkeeper looms
up through the mist, muffled up in heavy
cape and woollen scarf against the cold
air of morning, a stout buckthorn staff
in his right hand, showing that he is not
unprepared to meet any possible emer-
gency. This is his domain, and he is
making a last round to satisfy himself
that all is well on his beat, before the
day which is even now breaking, when

290

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 291

he has high hopes of showing such sport
as shall more than repay him for the
long months of hard work, ceaseless vigil,
and many anxieties which have gone
before.

He feels his way up the hedgerow, till
he reaches the gateway giving into the
lane beyond, where he pauses to light a
consoling pipe, and is just going to vault
the gate, when some distant sound catches
his quick ear, and he stops to listen
under shelter of the tall hedge, while
the sun breaks through the mist, which
streams upward into the still air in
fantastic wreath and swirl.

Many a glimpse of the rarer sides of
wild life comes within the keeper's ken
as he takes his walks abroad, such time
as most honest folks are safely abed.
This morning it is the silver grey form
of a badger, whose stealthy approach
would have escaped the hearing of any
but those whose habits of life make them
almost uncannily aware of each rustling
leaf and its meaning, and who now passes

292 PARTRIDGES

along the hedge with the queer distinctive
rolling gait of his race, homeward bound
from some midnight foray. Though no
true vegetarian — and as like as not a
family of young rabbits have gone to
promote that well - fed appearance he
presents — still with regard to game proper
he has a fairly clean record, and the keeper
views him with a lenient and comparatively
friendly eye, checking the hostile demon-
strations— low growling and rising hackles
— of his dog with a muttered **Down,
Nero, you fool."

As the mist rolls slowly away, a fair
countryside comes into view. In the
near foreground meadows soaked and
glistening with dew, each bush and briar
covered with the myriad webs of gossamer
spiders, delicate threads of lacework
shining in all the colours of the rainbow.
All around lies a wide stretch of arable
country, a land of chalky fallow and
broad bare stubbles, of copse and common,
heavy wood and rolling down. To the
west, where a wide-spreading valley, green

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 293

and peaceful, opens between the rising
downs, a long line of grey willows and a
glimmer of diamond-clear water bespeak
the presence of the historic Test, true
Mecca of the dry-fly fisherman.

Beyond again rise the ridges and heaths
of the Forest, where Saxon Thanes hunted
the wolf and the bear or ever Norman
William came to England, now glorious
in their autumn livery of russet brown
and tawny gold.

The old-fashioned hedge, under which
our keeper is standing — a tangled jumble
of hazel and sloe, elder and hawthorn —
bends over a winding green lane, where
bracken and briar encroach on the dis-
used roadway, which leads with many
a devious turning down the hill to the
hollow below, where the old-world houses
of the little hamlet, with chalk-built walls,
timber frames, and quaint overhanging
upper stories, cluster — each askew to its
neighbour — round the brick and flint
tower of the ancient church.

Time's hand falls light on this quiet

294 PARTRIDGES

backwater of life ; little change can there
be, one would think, since Royalist and
Roundhead camped and fought on the
downs above, where a century later the
youth of Hampshire did battle on the
earliest of cricket grounds.

In the distance, a line of blue hills tells
of a higher sweep of downland, though a
fleecy pall of mist still hangs over the
ancient capital of England and hides the
towers and spires of Wykeham from view.

" I've seen worse days for the job," is
the keeper's grudging acknowledgment
to the clerk of the weather, as he takes
his way down the lane, through the silent
village, to where the smoke of a hidden
cottage rises behind a dark patch of wood
on the ridge of down beyond.

As he follows the path through the
wood, he stops for a minute before a
gnarled and massive oak, surveying with
a grim complacency the well - filled
* larder' which adorns its trunk. Many
a good day's work has gone to fill those
ranks of mummies, hard and dry as

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 295

specimens in a museum, for minute
* hoppers' clean up all the flesh, leaving
only skins and bones. Stoats and weasels
occupy the lower rows of the collection,
mere shrivelled remnants to the casual
observer, yet serving to recall the story
of their departure from this life to their
quondam pursuer. This family of young
stoats met their death while feasting on
the body of their lately defunct mother ;
that old fellow next door was surprised
while engaged in deluding an unwary
blackbird by turning somersaults down
a bank, a well-directed shot bringing the
performance to a close. Above hang
lines of crows, magpies, jackdaws, and
sparrow-hawks, with a single kestrel who
developed an unhappy taste for young
pheasants in the rearing field, and was
reluctantly condemned, the 'wind-hovers,'
as a rule, having earned a clean bill of
health. A row of cats' heads, staring
hideously down on the visitor, complete
the tale of trophies. Other cats there
were, but they do not figure here, nor

296 PARTRIDGES

does any dog appear in the collection —
only the observant might note that the
keeper's cabbages are of a luxuriant
growth.

Turning from these silent witnesses
of his woodcraft, frantic demonstrations
of joy from a more youthful generation
of Neros greet his approach ; the pink-
eyed ferret looks expectantly through the
narrow bars of its hutch, and as he clicks
to the wicket gate behind him, and passes
through the little garden, still bright with
dahlias and Michaelmas daisies, to his
neat cottage home, with its deep thatch
and pendent eaves, a savoury smell of
cooking tells him that the ' missus ' — ever
mindful of his wants — is already up and
about and will soon have a heroic break-
fast of bacon and potatoes ready where-
with to comfort the inner man.

Two hours later the white-smocked
beaters are tramping up the lane from the
village, with many a rustic joke and cackle
of laughter, to open the campaign against
the partridges, who, little suspecting the

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 297

grim entertainment provided for them,
have just finished their morning meal on
the stubbles, and are now contemplating
a period of peaceful retirement.

But with all this you have little to do ;
the sun is high up in the heaven before
you can make up your mind to rise,
betaking yourself with much splashing
and singing (why does every one, however
mute a swan at other times, sing, whistle,
or hum in his bath ?) to the cold tub,
whence you presently emerge in a glow
of rude health to don your lightest shoot-
ing suit — for a glance through the open
window assures you of a real day of
Indian summer — hobnail shoes and spats,
and descend the carved oak staircase of
the old Jacobean manor-house wherein
you are staying. The gong is just sound-
ing for family prayers, but the easier
manners of the present day no longer
enforce universal attendance, so you slip
out through a side door, and take a short
but quick walk through the old-world
' pleasaunce,' where flaunting peacocks

298 PAHTRIDGES

and heathen gods, cunningly fashioned in
yew, remain an enduring monument to
some forgotten professor of the topiary art.

The second gong announcing breakfast
finds you no laggard to its summons, for
you are young and very keen to hold
your own to-day with your elders and
betters, and are feeling all the better this
morning for having gone easy at dinner
and early to bed last night, resisting the
insidious attractions of bridge, and only
staying in the smoking-room long enough
to enjoy one modest pipe, while you
conned the pages of the house game-book
with a view of elucidating the chances of
the next day. Breakfast over, you fetch
your retriever from the stables, where he
has been housed, and join the rest of the
party on the lawn. Places are drawn,
and you find that yours is an outside
number — no bad thing, for it will give
you a chance of finding your form before
undertaking more serious business in the
centre of the line.

Ten minutes in a well-appointed car

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 299

takes you to the scene of action, and soon
the straggling procession of guns, loaders,
and keepers are making their way across
a broad meadow towards the row of pegs
that marks the line for the first drive.
**The drivers ain't round yet, so there's
no hurry," says your host, as he points
you out your place ; but you are very
conscious that your chances as an outside
gun may well be few and far between,
and that the odd bird or covey that the
drivers may disturb on their way round
are by no means to be despised. So you
make your arrangements without further
delay ; your servant, an expert loader,
crouching behind you, and your dog com-
fortably settled some ten yards off, where
he may be relied on to sit like a statue
till his turn for action comes. You give
your guns a look over before they are
loaded, slip a few cartridges into your
own pocket — just in case any hitch occurs
in the loading — and balanced on your
shooting stick all ready for action, proceed
to take your bearings.

300 PARTRIDGES

Thirty yards in front of you rises the
tall dense hedge that the guns are lining ;
your place is on the left of the six guns,
and between you and your neighbour
the tops of a row of stunted hedgerow
trees are just visible, marking the dividing
line of the turnips which are going to be
driven, and the stubble which you cannot
see, but know to be in your immediate
front.

Your vigilance is soon rewarded. The
other guns are still chatting with their
neighbours, when a low whistle from the
front makes you jump up from your seat,
shove up the safety bolt of your Purdey,
and stand scanning your limited horizon,
your left hand well down the barrels and
the butt resting on your thigh. Five
seconds later and the first covey of the
day streams over the fence twenty yards
to your right. The two nearest birds
cross as they come into sight, and a lucky
or clever shot brings them both down
together — a miss with the left barrel — too
far back as usual — a good recovery with

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 301

the second gun as the same bird swings
round behind — and you feel that the day
has begun well, for here you are, three
birds to the good, and the other guns only
now hurrying to their places.

Soon the faint blast of a horn an-
nounces that the drivers have started,
and though nothing comes your way, the
centre guns are soon hard at work, each
covey — and there are many — paying due
toll for its passage. Having nothing to
occupy your attention, you find it a
pleasure to watch the 'professors' at
work. Their accuracy does not seem so
surprising — you can hold a gun fairly
straight yourself — but the pace they do it
at does strike you as wonderful. No signs
of fluster or flurry, yet they are shooting
three birds where you couldn't fire at
more than two, and killing them cleanly
withal, just a tiny pufF of the neck
feathers to show that the bird has it in
the right place. Occasionally a single
bird turns from the shooting and gives
you an opportunity of wiping some one's

302 PARTRIDGES

eye as it skims along the top of the hedge,
or turns away back into the drive — the
latter always a difficult bird to stop.

A cock pheasant — first of the season —
that rises some way down the cross fence
is a real good bird by the time he gets to
you, and two more single and simple
partridges from the corner of the turnips
are all that fall to your lot before the
swish of the flags just the other side of
the fence tells you that the first drive is
over. Keepers, loaders, and guns are
soon scattered about the meadow picking
up the slain, so you see both your guns
unloaded, pick up the half-dozen birds
that are lying in the open, send the two
that your neighbour nearly dropped on
your head to be added to his little pile,
and try your dog down the fence for that
bird which may well be a runner. The
scent is still bad after the heavy dew,
and it is ten minutes before * Nelson ' runs
the fugitive to ground fifty yards away.
You have still a brace more in the
turnips, which you collect from the keeper

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 303

who has picked them, return your
modest score to the man with the card,
and are ready to be off by the time
your host's reminder, " This way, guns,
please," is heard from the far end of
the field.

The second drive is not so prolific, for
which you are not altogether sorry,
because the birds are being brought in
from the boundary ; and to make sure of
their coming on, the guns are placed
rather . closer up to a high fence than is
conducive to comfort in shooting. Half
an hour later you are taking your place
as No. 4 in a valley which looks as if it
had been made for the express purpose of
driving partridges over. With a thrill of
pleasurable excitement, you realize that
this is the famous 'valley of death'- —
the most killing drive on one of the finest
partridge beats in England.

First, you choose a good level stand
on the close smooth turf, see that your
loader has got card and pencil handy —
this may well be a big drive for you,

304 PARTRIDGES

when it will be important to keep close
account of how many birds you have
down, and it is no light task to keep the
score in your head when the fun is fast
and furious — and then take measure of
your surroundings.

The steep chalk bank rising in front
of you, fragrant with thyme and gorse,
is crowned by an overgrown hedge of
thorn and hazel, tangled with briar and
bracken, now bright with trailing wreaths
of briony and ripe berries of hawthorn
and elder. Birds topping the fence
would be too far out to take at once —
you decide to let them come well over
you before shooting. Otherwise all
seems plain sailing, every bird must be
a real 'archangel,' to be taken at your
favourite angle, without having to think
where your neighbours are.

The lazy caw of a rook, a far-away
tinkling of sheep-bells, the drowsy hum
of bees about your feet, and the echo of
a distant horn which tells you that the
beaters are off, are the only sounds that

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 305

break the hot stillness of this glorious
autumn morning.

A flight of fieldfares and larks heralds
the start of the drive, and you pace them
with your gun to get some freedom into
your swing. A single Frenchman follows,
crossing the valley straight as a die — an
easy opening of which you duly avail
yourself, taking him well out in front,
and giving him a good lead with the
gun. A sprinkling of other birds begins
to bring the other guns into play, and the
crackle of musketry soon becomes general.
Presently a big lot — three or four coveys
packed together — which has tried vainly
to force the flanks of the drive, comes
swinging down the line from the right.
They are well strung out, and here, if
ever, is a good chance of killing your
four. Unluckily your neighbour's last
bird only misses your head by a foot,
giving you a bad start — for your first
bird is missed by yards in consequence ;
you grip your gun if anything a little
tighter, and make no mistake about the

20

306 PARTRIDGES

other three, each in turn making a little
somersault as it passes overhead, to fall
dead on the turf behind.

For the next ten minutes partridges
stream over, and you settle down to the
work ; your loader is quick and handy,
clever at reaching the gun well forward
into your hand — there is no fumbling
with cartridges or mishaps in changing
guns. Your eye is well in, and though
you miss a few, most of your shots are
followed by a pleasant thud on the turf
behind. Before the beaters are in, your
barrels are burning hot, and you are
glad to slip on a glove to protect your
left hand.

But the best of things must have an
end ; the stream of birds slackens and
then stops. The beaters come into
sight on the top of the bank, and the
drive of your life is over. Forty -five
partridges and half-a-dozen pheasants
form your contribution to the total, in
killing which you have used just over
seventy cartridges — no bad proportion, for

OLD MICHAELMAS DAY 307

you took them as they came, taking no
thought about your average. Luncheon
and the ladies await you by the red-
roofed barn, clustered round with yellow-
brown ricks, sheltering in the hollow at
the foot of the valley ; and thither you
betake yourself, after seeing your full
tally of slain safely stowed in the game
van.

Good sport again in the afternoon,
till the evening shadows lengthen on the
autumfi stubbles, and it is time to turn
homewards. After immemorial custom,
the bag is spread out on the lawn, and
though you are no glutton for slaughter
as a rule, you cannot for once help feeling
well pleased when you think that the
whole of one of those six rows may fairly
be claimed as your share. Fifty brace
to your own gun — a right good score
made by close attention to business and
fair shooting.

CHAPTER X

STATISTICAL

Some records in Britain — Partridges abroad — Austria,
Hungary, and Belgium.

Inseparably connected with any real
interest in such shooting as you may be
fortunate enough to possess, is a pardon-
able pride in the results of your labours,
as figured in the columns of your game-
book. Yet while the records of your
shooting cannot be disregarded altogether
— lies not the proof of the pudding in
the eating thereof? — at the same time,
their pursuit is fraught with danger,
insidious danger that the mens sana in
corpore sano — to the furtherance of which
admirable balance all our field sports
should tend, else they are without purpose

308

STATISTICAL 309

— may become tainted by such mania as
besets the collector.

So long as your interest in figures
remains subjective, so long as it is but
an honest feeling of satisfaction that
your science and skill have not been
applied in vain, all is well ; but, alas,
from that happy state it is but a step, or
rather a gradation of almost imperceptible
steps, to the objective interest, the desire
to outshine your neighbours, the longing
to hold or break the record for your
county or country.

To what divergent lengths these
different points of view may lead from
the unnoticed parting of the ways, let
the sport on two great estates serve as
instance. Both can show great store of
partridges, both fail to make the best
use of them, but after what different
fashion.

On the first, the shooting is a leisurely
business ; it extends over many weeks,
and gives pleasure to many. It is a
friendly and hospitable affair ; the guests

310 PARTRIDGES

are the friends of the family, and guns
are asked because they are liked, with
small regard to their prowess in the
field. Here the keepers have strict
instructions never to reveal the bag, and
no reference to figures is allowed.

On the second estate, a vast tract
of country is devoted to the great driving
week; the guns are semi-professional,
and are there solely on business ; even
the ladies are banished for the week,
lest their disturbing influence should put
some one out of form.

The diet and drink of this artillery —
for so one is inclined to speak of the
guests — are strictly regulated ; they are
packed off to bed soon after sunset, and
are in position for the first drive of
the morning before the sun has risen.
The score of each gun is carefully kept,
and his merits tested like those of a new
quick firer ; the business of the week
is to kill more partridges than any one
else does in the same time, and to that
end all else is subservient.

STATISTICAL 311

Somewhere between these extremes
lies the right use of a shooting — media
tutissimus ibis. For while any element
of professionalism should be shunned, and
the pleasure of seeing your friends under
your roof be allowed considerable voice
in the matter, at the same time it is a
good thing if the guns you take out
shooting are able to acquit themselves
creditably in the field without too much
missing, or, worse still, 'tinkering' of
your birds. For there are some guns
who seem to shoot most consistently,
and always the best part of a foot too
far back ; the number of birds these
gentlemen can contrive to wound and
lose, both to the bag and to the ground,
is something surprising. If you have
pheasants in your woods, the problem
is somewhat simplified ; you can then
ask those of your friends who shoot best
to drive your partridges, and the in-
different performers to the covert shoot,
where they will enjoy themselves quite
as much, with a good gun behind them

312 PARTRIDGES

to take the high ones they miss, and stop
the low ones they hit but fail to kill

Settle the question as you may, you
can depend on one fact, that if you are
never at any pains to collect a decent
team of guns for partridge-driving, either
individually good, or else with a flier or
two in the party to do the work and
'nurse' his neighbours, you will find it
very hard to keep your keepers up to the
mark.

When a man has worked really hard
for months, it must be a trial to see his
efforts wasted, for a keeper can only
measure the success of a day by the
result. To see the birds he is at such
trouble to bring well over the guns pass-
ing on unscathed, and guns light-heartedly
chatting at critical moments, and not
entering at all seriously into the business
of the day, is enough to take the heart
out of any man, and slackness and bad
work on the part of the guns is likely
enough to breed slackness and bad work
on the part of the keepers.

STATISTICAL 313

It is a common charge against modern
sportsmen that they are insatiate in
slaughter, and that there is no reason
why they should want to kill ten times
as much as their forebears. Let it be at
once admitted that there is a class who
only go out to get their guns off, who
would rather shoot ten hand-reared ducks
let out of hampers than the same number
of wild ones, if the former only gave
better shots, and who are generally
different in every respect from the old
stamp of sportsmen. But set aside this
class — chiefly men of business or fashion
— and take the men who own or lease
the shootings where the big totals are
made : you will find them as willing as
any one to take part in days of hard work
for small result, only they have a marked
predilection for seeing things well done.
It is not killing only 30 brace in a day's
driving that bores them ; it is the fact,
patent to their experienced eye, that
with good management double and treble
the number of birds should have been

314 PARTRIDGES

brought to the guns. So when they have
their organized days, they are organized
to some purpose, which means another
heavy total marked up against them by
their critics, but when they have an off-
day's marauding they will be found will-
ing to work as hard as any one to kill
a dozen head.

The practice of scientific game pre-
servation, with its attendant increase in
results, was firmly established on the
Continent a hundred years before it found
any foothold in England. Indeed the
whole idea of organized shoots was quite
misunderstood in this country ; the
popular idea was that the game from
miles away was all collected in nets, and
that the heavy totals recorded were
nothing but "a wanton registry of
slaughter such as no sportsman can read
without regret " — a totally erroneous con-
clusion, for where game can by scientific
methods be induced to increase, there can
surely be no reasonable objection to there
being plenty of it.

STATISTICAL 315

So long ago as the year 1753, the
Emperor of Austria and twenty-two other
guns, shooting in Bohemia, killed 47,950
head in twenty days, of which 19,545
were partridges, while at Lichtenstein in
Saxony it is duly recorded in the sporting
magazines of the day — though it is almost
too much to ask any one to believe it —
that in October 1797, 39,000 head of
game were killed in fourteen hours' shoot-
ing, chiefly hares and partridges. History
records neither the number nor the names
of the guns who took part in this in-
credible performance.

There is an early German record of
1201 partridges killed in two days' shoot-
ing, in all 3258 head besides a variety of
small game, the date 1788, and a special
note to the effect that all the birds were
shot on the wing. About the same time
the King of Naples and Sir William
Hamilton are credited with a bag of 320
brace, locality unspecified, though pre-
sumably in the royal preserves.

In France, the carefully kept game-

316 PARTRIDGES

books of Chantilly, home of the great
family of Cond^, near Paris, form a
wonderful record of sport. In the sum-
mary it is duly entered that between the
years 1747 and 1778 S.A.R. M. le Prince
de Conde killed 65,524 head ; while
a tragic figure in history is brought to
mind by the touching little footnote
which adds with scrupulous accuracy
'*that the nine pieces of game killed by
the late Prince's grandson, the Due
D'Enghien, were all rabbits."

The best day at Chantilly seems to
have been the 7th of October 1785,
when the two Princes de Conde, the
Prince Conti, and twelve other guns
killed 2580 partridges and 1500 hares.
In thirty years, 1748-79, the game-books
show a total of 117,574 grey partridges
and 12,426 redlegs.

Against such totals as these our best
records in these islands must pale.

Not till a hundred years later can we
produce any results of organized shooting
which will bear comparison at all. In

STATISTICAL 317

1858 and 1859, 314 and 352 brace respec-
tively were killed by eight guns walking
in line at Buckenham in Norfolk, the
shooters all using muzzle-loaders.

Ten years later, still walking in line,
8885 and 3308 partridges were the totals
of two successive years at Holkham,
which twenty years later again, in 1885
and 1887, were increased to 8100 and
7512, driving by then being firmly estab-
lished.

Shooting at Elveden on September 8,
1876, the Maharajah Dhuleep Singh killed
780 partridges to his own gun, a record
which seems likely to stand the test of
time.

In the world of driving, Lord Ash-
burton with five other guns killed 1458
partridges on November 4, 1897, at the
Grange in Hampshire ; the Duke of
Portland 1478 partridges in one day at
Welbeck Abbey in Notts in 1906, his
neighbour, Mr. W. Hollins, killing 1500
partridges one day the same year ; while
at Holkham in 1905, a total of 1671

318 PARTRIDGES

partridges, killed off 2000 acres in twenty
drives to eight guns, remains the best day
on record.

Outside Great Britain there is fair
partridge-shooting in Northern Europe.
In Germany the usual method is to shoot
over a dog — a versatile animal who, to
quote Baron Schonberg,

must act as bloodhound on the trail of a wounded
roe in summer, retrieve ducks in the water, and
act as a spaniel for woodcock and snipe. In
September he must take no notice whatever of
hares, while two months later he must hunt down
all wounded hares and retrieve them without
noticing partridges.

Ninety brace have been shot by one
gun over dogs, and at Gross Strehlitz
Count Renard has killed 300 brace by
driving.

In the rich cultivated plains of Flanders,
Brabant and Hainault, Belgian sportsmen
shoot their partridges over dogs, 50
brace to a single gun not being unknown.
In Holland the partridges suffer rather
an ignominious fate, their eggs — together
with those of every other bird, rare and

- STATISTICAL 319

common alike — being eagerly sought for
by the economical Dutchman as a cheap
form of food.

In modern France there is partridge-
shooting of the best, where game is in any
way preserved ; in September 1898, on
the vast plains of Beauce, between Orleans
and Chartres, twenty guns accounted for
3000 partridges in two days' shooting over
only four or five farms.

The grand hunts in Portugal, where
every species of game from a wolf to a
titlark figures in the bag, would possess
certain novel features to any of us who
are only accustomed to our own days of
tamer sport. The Count D'Arnoso thus
describes the procedure :

As a, rule Sunday is selected, so that a greater
number of people may take part in the hunt.
All armed, they form a large circle, covering a
great extent of ground. The circle gradually
contracts. The proprietors of the land and the
best shots wait at the point on which the circle
will converge, and where the drive will therefore
terminate. Occasionally, only after some hours'
driving, is there heard an indistinct and distant
noise, which gradually and slowly increasing as

320 PARTRIDGES

the driving approaches, when close at hand
becomes deafening. Any small game that may
appear is shot only when the drive is near its
end. Then the firing is tremendous, shots cross-
ing in every direction, the noise of which, in
conjunction with the shouting of the hunters,
gives one the idea of a fierce battle.

With His Majesty I once took part in one,
and it seemed as if we, instead of taking part in
a simple hunt, were the victims of a tremendous
attack. And yet these hundreds of men that
surrounded us, while shooting, some in the direc-
tion of our feet, others almost at our heads, and
trying to kill foxes, rabbits, or partridges, all
shouted enthusiastically, "Long live our King!"
Viva 0 nosso Rei ! ^

The Count's remarks on the Portuguese
dogs seem also to merit reproduction.

In unenclosed lands, partridges are shot over
greyhounds, of which there is a very good breed
in Portugal. More than once I have been out
shooting with a priest living near the house of
Pindella. He had a dog which he had taught
to tell by the movement of its muzzle the exact
number of partridges that it saw before it. A
splendid dog !

On the fertile plains of Austria and
Hungary, where vast expanses of millet

^ Sport in Europe, 1901.

STATISTICAL 321

and maize favour abundance of game, the
official returns show that close on a
million and a half partridges are annually
killed. Walking in line, with a drive
when the occasional fence is reached, is
the usual method adopted.

The late Baron Hirsch managed the
shooting of his vast estates on such a
lavish scale as has never been attempted
elsewhere. In 1893 his picked team of
guns killed close on 50,000 partridges in
six weeks' shooting, Lord de Grey on
one occasion having 240 birds down in
one drive. On Count Karolyi's estates
at Tot Megyer ten guns killed 10,000
partridges in ten days, walking in line,
while in Bohemia a total of 4000 part-
ridges killed in a single day on the estates
of Prince Auersberg some years ago
seems never to have been since equalled.

In the course of my inquiries about
shooting in Austria, a circular came to
hand, emanating from a ** Bureau fur
Jagd - Commissionen " in Vienna, which
though it offered but little information

21

322 PARTRIDGES

about partridges, yet seems to provide
such quaint sport in the form of ''hunts
exclusively conducted by home-born expert
personality,'' that I cannot refrain from
giving a sample here.

Hunting Excursions B. Hunting for black-
game and other beasts of prey on lordly estate
in Neutra - Comitat, Hungary. Sitting in the
ambush and beating. Very good arrangement.
3-4 days.

A. Partridge shootings on a clerical estate in
the plains of the Danube. Splendid fowlings, then
pheasant -huntings, deer -stalking, and shooting
from a hiding-place. Hunting for big roe-bucks.
Also reduced shootings of geese, bustardt, and
hares. Stay 8-10 days.

For those who seek variety these ex-
cursions would seem to possess many
novel and attractive features.

INDEX

Accurate shooting', a possible
aid to, 236

Bantams as foster-mothers,

113
Beaters and picking up, 273
clappers for, 267-2G8
generous treatment of, ad-
visable, 268-269
management of, 267
smocks for, 269
Blackadder estate, notes from,

142-143
Buckwheat, cultivation of,

129-130
"Bushing" fields, 101

Carnegie, Mr., quoted, 201

Cats, 196

Chantilly, records of, 315-

316
Charterhall estate, notes

from, 139-141
Copsey, Mr. S. H., quoted,

194
Country districts, welfare of,

often ' dependent on

sport, 8
Crow, carrion, 196
Crows, hooded, 198

Dead game, necessary care
in transport of, 273-274
Dogs, poaching, 203

Eggs, artificial, 109-110
enormous number of stolen

imported, 113
Elvedon, new systems of

preservation commenced

at, 132
Euston system, advantages

of, 110-111
invention of, 108-109
methods of, 109-110
objects of, 109
Mr. Pearson Gregory and,

108-109
surest remedy for fox

troubles, 107

Field Sports and Game Guild,

113
Field Trials Associations,

good influence of, 228
Firing long shots, condem-
nation of, 208-210
Fountains, drinking, 111-

112
Foxes, devices to save nests
from, 104-107
question of, 102
French partridges and driv-
ing, 30-31
" French System," 137
best adaptation of, 122-123
demerits of, 121-122
details of, 118-120

323 21 a

324

PARTRIDGES

^'French System/' invention
of, 118
merits of, 120-121

Gamekeeper, importance of,
early training of, 87-88
relations to his master, 94
Gamekeepers, allowances of,
92-9»
change in race of, 179
relations with farmers, 100
work of, on partridge
ground, 89-91 et seq.
Game laws, probable security

of, 9-12
Glengarry, list of ^^ermin

trapped at, 179-181
Gordonstoun estate, notes
from, 136-138

Half-mooning, advantages of,
222-224
importance of system in,
224

Hand - reared birds, short-
comings of, 117

Hand-rearing, disadvantages
of, IK)
limited profitalde adoption
of, 116-117

Hawker, Col. Peter, quota-
tion from diary of, 66-69

Hawkins, Mr., device of, at
hatching time, 114

Hazel hen, the, 22-24

Hedgehog, Mr. T. G. Millais
in defence of the, 192

Hedgeliogs, 95, 192

Hoo Estate, the, notes from,
171-173

Hungarians, 137, 138, 140,
142, 144, 148, 150, 156,
159, 162, 166, 169, 171,
173, 174

Hungarians, as agents in

changing blood, 127
care requisite in dealing

with, 124-125
marking for identification,

326-127
method of turning down,

125-126
question of introduction of,

123-124
Hungary, vermin killing in,

181-182

Ideal estate, cultivation on,
83

good neighbours round, 81

keepers on, 84

lie of ground, 81

nesting ground on, 83-84

size of, 81

soil of, 82
Incubator, 114

Jackdaw, 196

Jay, 199

Jones, Mr. Owen, on keeper-
ing as a profession, 86-
87, 93
quoted, 200

Keepers' Benefit Society,

237-238
Kestrel, 201-202
Kite, shooting partridges

under a, 231

Logan estate, notes from,
143-146

Magpie, 198

Malmesbury, third Earl of,
as a sportsman, 65

INDEX

325

Matches, Captain Ross and
Colonel Anson, 71-74
England v. Scotland, 75-78
heavy betting- on, 71

Maxwell, Sir William, ac-
count of England v.
Scotland match by, 74-
78

Merlin, 202

Millet, Hungarian cultivation
of, 130-131

Modern preservation, the
growth and ethics of,
313-314

Nesting records, maps for,

97-98
Nesting season, work in the,

96
Nests, system of management

of, 99
visiting, 98
Novice in shooting field, right

training of, 213-215

Orwell Park, notes from, 173-

174
Owls, 202-203

Partridge, common, differ-
ences between young and
old, 36

as a migrant, 33

cookery of, 53-60

diseases liable to, 49

distinguishing characters
of sexes, 34-36

life history of, 39-48

longevity of, 52

natural distribution af-
fected by preservation,
32-33

varieties of, 36-37
^'Partridge disease," the, 50-
52

Partridge drive, description

of, 289-307
Partridge-driving, 273
a high art, 239-240
as an agent in changing

blood, 244
back flanking, 271
beaters, using two sets of,

266
British records of, 817-318
compared with grouse-driv-
ing, 241-244
compared with walking in

line, 216-218
cost of, 289
details of arranging, 259-

263
difficulties incident to, 263-

266
difficulties of placing line

of guns, 251-252
distances between guns,

251-252
duties of guns, 277-278
early instances of, 240
examples and diagrams of,

274-280
fallacies concerning, 281-

284
flanking, 269-272
ground best suited for, 248-

249
how far beneficial to a

shooting, 242
importance of marking out

stands for guns, 257-258
lie of ground important in

fixing position of guns,

259-260
method of planning out,

249-250
ordered sequence of drives,

266-267
picking up, 272

326

PARTRIDGES

Partridge - driving-, portable
shelters for, 258-256

summary of rules regulat-
ing successful conduct of,
285-288

wattled hurdles as butts,
256
Partridge preservation, diffi-
culty of formulating
rules about, 134
Partridge, range of common,

82
Partridge - shooting as a
national asset, 6

comparative cost of, 210-
211

cost on a small scale, 211-
212

early records of, 31 5

in France, 319

in Germany, 818

in Hungary, 321-322

in Portugal, 319-820
Partridge, the French, 26-
80

the Lerwa, 18

roast, no improvement pos-
sible on, 54-56
Partridges and politics, 1
et seq.

foreign species, possible in-
troduction of, 24-25

hand-rearing of, 113

notes on foreign species
turned down at Woburn
Abbey, 25-26

on grass lands, 129

suffer from clogged feet on
clay soils, 52

the snow, 19-20
Patshull estate, notes from,

149-152
Perdix harhata, 21-22

7nontana, 37-89

Perdrix a la mode d' Alcantara,
58
aux choux, 56-57

Peregrine falcon, 199-200

Pickenham Hall, notes from,
154-158

Pine marten, the, 189

Pointer, best type of, for
utility, 227
disuse of partridge-shoot-
ing, 225
scope for profitable employ-
ment of, under modern
conditions, 226

Polecat, the, 189

Pole trap, 205

Politicians, ill - considered
utterances of, about
sport, 1 et seq.

Poultry on stubbles, 203

Preston Hall, notes from,
188-139

Rat, 188-190

agent in spreading disease,

188
fecundity of, 185
game preserves responsi-
bility for, 186-187
means of destruction of,

206-207
strange toleration of, 185-

186
the black, 189
the brown, 189
Rat question. Chambers of
Agriculture recommend-
ation about, 187
Rats, destruction of, 94
Records, the true value of,

808-810
Remises, 112-113
Retrievers, recent improve-
ment in work of, 227-228

INDEX

327

Retrievers, their use and

abuse, 229-231
Rooks as vermin, 197-198
Ross, Captain, his matcli

with Colonel Anson, 71-

74
Russell, Mr. R., quoted, 194

Shooting, the right use of a,

311-312
Shootings, right system to

manage, 128-129
Sparrow-hawk, 200-201
Speedy, Mr. T., quoted, 194,

200
Sporting guns, recent im-
provement in, 233-234
Sportsman, the qualities of a,

232
Stapleton estate, notes from,

152-154
Stetchworth estate, notes

from, 168-170
Stoats, 95, 190
Stratton estate, notes from,

174-176
SwafFham Prior estate, notes

from, 164-168

''Tipping," system of, 234-
236

Vermin, comparative list of,

204-205
Vermin money, danger of

allowing, 91-92

^V^alking in line, considera-
tions influencing pace,
221-222
methods of, 219-220
picking up, 220-221

\V^easel, the, 191

VV^eeting Hall, notes from,
161-164

VVelbeck Abbey, notes from,
147-149

Wild Birds' Protection Act,
205-206

Wild life, change in man's
attitude towards, 177-179

\Vitchingham Hall, notes
from, 158-161

Zambra, Mr. Nelson, quoted,
187

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