230 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



When an estate does not contain cover of a wild 

 nature, such as gorse, broom, fern, or rushes, and its 

 fields of roots are either eaten by sheep or are too 

 bare for the game to hide in, then the partridges are 

 naturally to be sought in different places from what 

 they frequented in September. 



From the end of October you may, in fine weather, 

 expect to find partridges chiefly on the stubbles and 

 grasses ; for as the days shorten they prefer to remain 

 on or near their feeding grounds, rather than to sit 

 amid the scanty shelter of the root crops, which at 

 that time of year are often very w r et, and no longer 

 have their broad protecting leaves ; nor, indeed, as 

 the sun loses its power is the shade these formerly 

 gave necessary to the birds. 



As the season progresses, and especially in rough, 

 wet weather, you will find the birds take more and 

 more to the hedges, to the corners of the fields, and 

 to all kinds of out-of-the-way spots you never saw 

 them in during September, and which they now 

 haunt for warmth and to obtain shelter from the wind 

 and rain. Partridges also seek the fences in winter, 

 when the scattered seeds of grain on the stubbles are 

 rotten from wet, to feed on the soft grasses and 

 succulent leaves of plants that grow in their shadow, 

 and particularly about the edges of the ditches and 

 small trickles of water beneath the hedges. It is re- 

 markable what good condition this food retains the 

 birds in during a long spell of frost. 



