NATURAL HISTORY 51 



manures have been freely used or Hun- 

 garians extensively turned out, there is 

 still no weight of evidence to warrant a 

 conclusion that this disease can be dis- 

 associated from, or indeed be regarded 

 as anything but the natural outcome of, 

 the unhappy succession of wet summers. 

 Where fine weather at hatching time is 

 the rule, the exceptional cold and rain 

 of the last three years have reduced the 

 stock of partridges to within a measurable 

 distance of vanishing point, and such 

 districts alone constitute the supposed 

 ' infected area ' ; in harsher, northern 

 climates, where birds are better able to 

 withstand unfavourable weather, no word 

 is heard of unusual disease. 



If in the years of plenty, which are 

 surely due, partridges continue to die all 

 the year round, the question will become 

 one of urgency ; but in the meantime 

 we can only wait and see, believing that 

 in two good seasons lies the surest remedy 

 for the decrease of partridges, and that 

 this evasive and nameless disease cannot 



