PRESERVATION 113 



one will be found among the notes from 

 Welbeck Abbey in Chapter V. 



With ordinary care and attention the 

 hand-rearing of partridges presents no 

 peculiar difficulty, and demands only the 

 ordinary appliances of pheasant-rearing. 

 On principle, absolute certainty as to the 

 source of supply in buying eggs should 

 be insisted on ; in practice, it is to be 

 feared that this precaution is sometimes 

 neglected, else were egg-stealing not so 

 profitable a pursuit. 1 



The treatment up to hatching time 

 differs in no respect from pheasant-rear- 

 ing, save only that it is advisable to set 

 the eggs under a smaller type of hen than 

 usual. Bantams and silkies, when they 

 can be induced to sit, which is not 



1 To ensure an honest source in buying eggs, every one 

 should be most particular in this country to deal only with 

 Associates of the Field Sports and Game Guild, of which 

 the Duke of Leeds is president, the Duke of Abercorn 

 vice-president, and which numbers all respectable dealers 

 in eggs among its associates. When buying eggs direct 

 from Austria-Hungary it is well to communicate with the 

 society of the same name in Vienna. It is said that close 

 on 100,000 stolen partridge eggs annually find their way 

 into this country. 



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