192 PARTRIDGES 



must be prepared to admit that in 

 destroying the weasel game-preservers 

 become, in some degree* responsible for 

 the presence of the rat and the vole ; yet 

 that the interests of game demand this 

 destruction seems a matter beyond all 

 doubt. 



The hedgehog an archaic form of 

 Insectivore, or insect-eater next claims 

 our attention. Would that his diet was 

 restricted by his name, but it is to be 

 feared that this nocturnal marauder plays 

 sad havoc among the partridge nests. 

 But he has his defenders too : Mr. J. G. 

 Millais, in his monumental work on 

 British Mammals, argues that 



The attacks on poultry and game are nearly 

 always the sins of individual animals, and are 

 not the practice of the whole species, . . . the 

 mischief is generally stopped by the killing of 

 the individual sinners, and only the ignorant, 

 which is another name for the unobservant, will 

 extend their anathemas and acts of retribution to 

 a whole race of practically innocent creatures. 



Even were this the case which cannot 

 be admitted when the weight of evidence 



