260 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



no better bird of its kind than an English partridge, 

 and we do not require one that is. 



To keep partridges at home you must rear them, 

 or, rather, they must rear their broods, at home. Turn 

 down foreign birds, and they have no home, and will 

 not make one, at all events near where they are given 

 their liberty, but will stray for miles before they settle 

 down, if they do so at all. If your land is absolutely 

 devoid of partridges you will have to rear the birds 

 from eggs. The first season, of course, none can 

 be shot, the second season a few, and after that 

 your stock should be established. On light corn 

 land it is easy enough to rear partridges by hand, 

 especially if ants' nests are available to feed them 

 with. 



Hand-reared partridges will remain through the 

 winter about the ground they were hatched on, and 

 should be hand-fed till the spring, when they will 

 take care of themselves and disperse to nest. 



Avoid purchasing partridge eggs unless you know 

 u-hcre they are gathered. You can generally arrange 

 with some friend to supply him with pheasant in lieu 

 of partridge eggs, or even to buy them from him. 

 Half or more of the partridge eggs that are offered 

 for sale are stolen, and if you ask a dealer where he 

 obtains the 500 or 5,000 partridge eggs he offers for 

 sale, he generally cannot tell you or dare not ! 



The great importance of killing vermin in the 

 spring is known to everybody ; and you may be sure, 



