SOME RECORDS AND COMPARISONS 231 



burgh, Ayr, Fife, Forfar, and Perth, all embrace, 

 within the marches of their lowlands, fertile plains 

 and valleys where, as he reckons up a plentiful bag 

 of partridges, the shooter can see the leap of the 

 salmon in the pool, or hear the cock grouse crow 

 upon the range of moorland, which, crowned by the 

 snowy outline of the Highlands, closes the distance. 



In England, Yorkshire and Nottingham fall but 

 a short way behind the Eastern counties, while 

 Chester, Salop, and Stafford, in the north-west, 

 Northampton and Hertford in the centre, Wilts, Hants, 

 and Dorset in the south, haveTTTousands of acres of 

 stubble and fallow, turnips and clover, on which the 

 coveys are neither few nor far between, and a bag 

 may be made worthy of any team of guns. 



In many of these there are spots where the oppor- 

 tunities for game, and partridges in particular, have 

 not been studied or developed. Wherever there is 

 light and well-drained soil, good water and a bracing 

 climate, with thick fences or other natural nesting 

 ground, there can partridges be made to increase and 

 multiply. 



Let landowners, large and small, carefully consider 

 whether, by studying the production and protection 

 of partridges on the principles followed by the few 

 who have made these a scientific study as well as a 



