THE PARTRIDGE 



III 



Enemies of the Partridge 



IN the old-fashioned hedges of Twm the 

 Carpenter's farm, and in the adjoining furze- 

 brakes and bramble clumps, the rabbits, as they 

 fed and gambolled at dawn or dusk, could 

 remain unseen from the open fields. Lurking 

 in and near thick cover, they acted as if birds 

 of prey were their most dreaded enemies. The 

 days of falcon and eagle, however, had long 

 passed, and the worst foes that now remained 

 to harass the weakUngs of the hedgerow thickets 

 were the members of the weasel tribe. The 

 rabbits were seldom safe from these blood- 

 thirsty httle pursuers. As summer drew on, 

 the weasels and the stoats, hunting in family 

 packs, wrought such havoc that, had not the 

 power of reproduction among the rabbits been 

 extraordinary — as it always is among defence- 

 less creatures, the history of whose Hves is mainly 

 a record of hair-breadth escapes from death — the 

 thickets must have been depopulated. 

 Despite the daily, almost hourly, slaughter, 



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