154 PARTRIDGES 



one did, and so I started the correspondence in the 

 Field. 



I held a trump card to prove my case in a letter from 

 the editor, saying that arsenic had been found in birds 

 sent to his office for investigation. But that editor died, 

 and his successor closed the correspondence before the 

 matter was settled. 



Meantime, while all admit the decrease of partridges, 

 many continue to give the old reasons as the cause. Bad 

 weather in the nesting season, a succession of unfavourable 

 years, overshooting, egg-stealing, poaching, and vermin 

 are all advanced by different people as the true cause. 

 But none of these account in any way for the steady 

 diminution in the stock of partridges between the close of 

 one shooting year and the ensuing nesting season, the old 

 birds getting fewer and fewer before the breeding time, 

 many being picked up dead, and others continually seen 

 in a wasting condition and hardly able to fly. Nor would 

 any or all of these reasons serve to account for arsenic 

 found in birds picked up dead and sent for examination. 



The cause of all the trouble must be a new one, as the 

 disaster is ; if the trouble is to be stopped, the old reasons 

 advanced to account for it must be abandoned, new ones 

 sought, and preventive measures undertaken. 



PICKENHAM, NORFOLK 

 (Notes by G. W. TAYLOR, Esq.) 



Five thousand acres, varying in quality from light land 

 that will pay for cultivation up to the best mixed soils 

 200 acres woodland, 600 permanent grass, 4300 acres 

 under the plough. 



The banks and hedges are very good natural nesting 

 ground, and there are 150 acres of heath and bracken 

 (permanent sheep pasture). On the big and open fields 



