COMMON PARTRIDGE. 421 



western and south-western districts that the grey- 

 partridge is found in such enormous quantities. There, 

 if not kept within due bounds by the sportsmen, this 

 prolific race would overrun everything, nor is it possible 

 to estimate the numbers reared in any favourable season 

 in localities so suited to their natural habits.^ Dry 

 summers, as a rule, are most favourable to the young 

 broods, but a long continued drought, such as has 

 been experienced more or less during the last three 

 years, proves fatal to great numbers when otherwise 

 strong and healthy; and m the wide open districts, 

 where the nests are most exposed to their depredations, 

 the rooks, unable to procure their natural food, will 

 hunt out and destroy the eggs of partridges and 

 pheasants, as well as those of peewits, Norfolk plover, 

 and the smaller ground-breeding birds. In the 

 eastern and more enclosed portions of the county, 

 however, where the "birds" are more affected by wet 

 seasons, and are easier of access at all times to the 

 sportsman, it is scarcely to be wondered at if a 

 greatly increased number of gunners, combined with 

 the modern style of shooting and the improvements 

 in fire-arms, should have told to some extent on their 

 numbers of late years. In this neighbourhood, at the 

 present time, from twenty to twenty-five brace in a 

 day is considered a good bag for two guns,t and yet I 



* Mr. Alfred Newton, writing from Elveden, near Tlietford, 

 " On the possibility of taking an ornithological census" (" Ibis," 

 1861, p. 190), observes — " After some reflection, I have come to the 

 conchision that the grey-partridge in this particular district is the 

 most abundant species we have ;" and, startling as this assertion 

 appears at first sight, I feel quite inclined to concur with him, the 

 wildness of the district being unfavourable to the claims of the 

 sparrow, whilst protection is in every way afforded to the partridge. 



t We have had no very remarkable partridge seasons since the 

 autumns of 1858 and 1859, when the amount reared throughout the 



