GROUND, STOCK, AND POACHING 201 



meadow which has no outlook between the two big 

 woods ? 



How, in short, can a keeper look after the 

 pheasants and partridges at the same time, and do 

 justice to both ? They are very distinct and different 

 functions, and I wish, leaving ground game out of 

 consideration which, since the passing of that dis- 

 honest measure known as the Hares and Rabbits Act, 

 is a mere matter of money or arrangement to em- 

 phasise the fact that it is in the open fields, in con- 

 nection with partridge management, that a keeper 

 finds the key to the preservation of game, and the 

 occasion of establishing cordial relations with farmers 

 and labourers, and of enlisting them on the side of 

 law and order, peace, plenty, and partridges. 



The netting of partridges I have alluded to above, 

 meaning thereby the usual method of dragging a 

 net (which is more destructive as well as more easily 

 carried when made of silk) across the field where 

 birds roost at night, and so dropping it over the 

 covey. The whereabouts of such a net, especially if 

 of silk, should not be difficult to trace anywhere 

 in the neighbourhood if keepers are well up to 

 their work. In the colliery districts, where keepers 

 are obliged to look very closely after their ground, 

 and where, besides doing a certain amount of detec- 



