162 PARTRIDGES 



frequently, you generally act as a guide-post to egg-stealers. 

 In this respect keepers must exercise great caution ; nests 

 should not be visited when the dew is on, or when very 

 wet, or in long grass, when the keeper's tracks are visible. 



Taking early nests and late nests, I think the average 

 number of eggs will be about 15. I once counted 84 

 nests and that is what they averaged, the highest having 

 23 eggs and the lowest 5. I always pick up a few part- 

 ridge eggs from ruined nests and put them in an incubator ; 

 if they are not sat on, I always put them in other nests if 

 possible. I have no system for rearing partridges beyond 

 getting bantams or small hens as foster-mothers. 



Change of Blood. I change eggs with friends every year. 

 I used to turn out from (300 to 500 brace of Hungarians 

 every year, but gave it up five years ago, as I found my 

 birds were getting weaker, and were dying in small 

 numbers practically all the year round. In old days the 

 English partridge was as tough and sturdy a bird as 

 existed, and seemed able to stand anything ; but now the 

 partridges are much more weakly, they do not weigh as 

 much, and I do not think their eggs hatch out as well as 

 they used to twelve to fifteen years ago. 



Vermin. There are no foxes. Rats are by far the 

 worst vermin ; we kill between 5000 and 8000 every year. 

 Small birds are a great nuisance ; owing to the killing of 

 the hawks we have hundreds of thousands of small birds 

 sparrows, linnets, and chaffinches. They do untold damage 

 to the corn, eat quantities of the pheasant chicks' food, 

 and, I believe, convey disease (enteric, etc.). They ought 

 to be kept down. I have seen flocks estimated at over 

 40,000 in a piece of rye left standing in December. Owls 

 and kestrels ought to be encouraged ; they do far more good 

 by killing rats than they do harm by taking an odd tame 

 pheasant chick or two. They do not touch wild chicks as 

 a rule, and if a keeper leaves his small chicks out of their 

 coops at night, he deserves to lose them. One rat does 

 more harm in a single week than an owl does in ten years. 



