8o NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



able stimulus from those who purchase large quantities 

 of partridges for turning down upon their private 

 estates. Such birds are professedly of foreign origin, 

 but a large percentage are supplied by the home 

 counties of England. 



Before we take final leave of this subject, it may 

 be remarked that there are other methods of poach- 

 ing partridges besides netting ; notably, snares are 

 employed for taking partridges, especially when 

 snow is lying on the ground, and the birds are 

 hungrily seeking food nearer the homesteads than 

 is ordinarily the case. Farm labourers are the chief 

 culprits in this respect. Snares are so easily set during 

 the performance of other duties that they often escape 

 the notice of keepers and landowners, and prove 

 highly remunerative to those who use them. In the 

 North of England especially, the country folk have a 

 happy knack of making snares. 



When the sand grouse visited England in 1888, a 

 country hind volunteered to snare a whole flock of 

 these beautiful species upon the ground on which 

 they were accustomed to roost, and, if permitted, 

 would certainly have carried his suggestion to a 

 successful issue. Such a fate actually befell a whole 

 covey of partridges, which had had the misfortune 

 to alight within the precincts of a county prison ; it 



