248 AUTUMN AND WINTER 



There is no busier sound, out of a factory, than the hum of 

 bees over it. There is no pleasanter sight to a farmer than 

 a stack of it well got. Of all forms of cover it is the closest 

 and most thorough. The wildest coveys, even the barren 

 pairs, will lie close in it, and the temptation to follow them 

 is more than most sportsmen care to struggle against. 



But the cardinal argument against the fixing of the First, 

 as the end of the close season for partridges, and almost all 

 other birds, is that the young are not yet mature. Never 

 a first goes by but a number of ' squeakers ' are shot ; and 



PARTRIDGES AMONGST THE STUBBLES 



though of course the good sportsman does not shoot the 

 small bird, the number of them generally seen on the First 

 may spoil the pleasure of his shooting. The Twelfth — just a 

 month later than the grouse — would be a more suitable date 

 in most years. But the First will remain the First. Our 

 English acres are in these days shorn so close that no cover 

 is left on the stubbles sufficient to hide a corn-mouse. The 

 reapers cut close and regular ; and there is a tendency to 

 reduce the size of hedges and clear up rough grass fields. 

 Those who would walk partridges and not drive them will 

 get within range of very few birds if they do not begin as 

 early as they may now begin. Even so the birds are wild 

 enough. 



For the rest the First is as near to a real be<rinnin£ of the 



