160 PARTRIDGES 



ones, which had sufficient stamina to resist the rain and 

 cold winds which set in at the end of June. 



We also suffer from the increasing custom of putting 

 poultry down on the stubbles, a custom which deprives 

 the partridges of food and quiet, and is undoubtedly 

 shockingly bad for preservation. 



There are no foxes. Rats, stoats and cats are my worst 

 enemies. Owls and kestrels do me no harm. Hedgehogs 

 are harmful ; they destroy partridge eggs, especially just 

 before the eggs are ready to hatch. I know of a score 

 of cases when hedgehogs have eaten the eggs and have 

 been found fast asleep in the nests. 



I do not consider French partridges at all harmful to 

 English partridges. Here they live together very amic- 

 ably, and I have seen a French and an English bird sitting 

 on their nests within a yard of each other. I encourage 

 Frenchmen as much as possible. Hares, within modera- 

 tion, do no harm. Pheasants need to be carefully watched 

 on a partridge beat in nesting time. They worry the 

 partridges by driving them off and laying their eggs in 

 the nests. The pheasant eggs must be removed and the 

 pheasant frightened as much as possible to prevent her 

 going back to the nest to lay. My keepers try to find 

 the pheasant on the nest and flush her off with much 

 noise ; occasionally they catch her and carry her a few 

 hundred yards away before letting her go. With the 

 exception of being a nuisance in the nesting season I do 

 not think that a moderate stock of pheasants does any 

 harm on a partridge beat. If my sole object, however, 

 was to have a large stock of partridges, I would do away 

 with pheasants altogether on that particular ground. 



In hard weather, severe frosts, and prolonged snow, I 

 feed the birds by the hedgerows, in the larger fields, or in 

 any pits, plantations, etc., to which they are in the habit of 

 resorting. 



With the exception of gapes, I am not troubled with 

 any special form of disease, but after every wet season I 



