in each of the four corners and fir boughs in the centre. 

 The birds will then be able to see out at the sides and 

 make the acquaintance of their future neighbours. 

 Hungarians will stay be^ if they have been bought in 

 January and turned out on ground which has been heavily 

 shot. When let out in February, or about the middle 

 of the pairing season, their thoughts are turned more 

 towards love-making than to exploring fresh country, and 

 it will be found that the higher price charged for the 

 birds at this time of the year will be more than counter- 

 balanced by the number which remain to neit. 



Refraining from shooting during a succession of bad 

 seasons, was given as the la^ reason for a possible weak- 

 ness of con^itution among partridges in some districts at 

 the present time. There are some owners of partridge 

 shooting who make the mistake of leaving as large a 

 breeding stock after a bad season as after a good one. 



If the limit of stock which will ne^ on the ground has 

 been reached after a good season, the same number of 

 birds will be too many to leave on it after a bad one. 

 Young birds are sccirce in a bad season, consequently the 

 ^ock will consist for the most part of old ones, which 

 require an ever increasing area to themselves for their 

 nests. The young birds are driven off the ground, and 

 the number of ne^s is by no means proportionate to the 

 stock left. After several bad seasons, if the ground is not 

 shot, the nesting stock consists of the very oldest birds 

 only. Many of these will die from old age, some are 

 barren and spend their time fighting the remainder, of 

 which the majority are too old to produce strong con- 

 stltutioned families. It is true that few estates suffer in 



42 



