194 PARTRIDGES 



able : Mr. T. Speedy competent witness 

 where the evidence of the eye on a point 

 of natural history is in question has 

 placed it on record that he has caught a 

 hedgehog red-handed in a pheasant's nest 

 on the Ladykirk estate in Berwickshire. 

 Mr. S. H. Copsey, Summerfield, Norfolk, 

 writes 1 : 



I went early one morning to a fence to 

 change some partridge's eggs, and found the 

 first nest gone. I concluded a hedgehog had 

 been there. Although no shells were left in the 

 nest, there were plenty a few yards away in the 

 field. Another nest was within 40 yards, and 

 to my surprise a fine old hedgehog was sitting in 

 the nest eating the eggs. While I was looking 

 at the beast he moved out of the nest to sit in 

 the morning sun. He grunted as fat pigs do. 

 It is needless for me to say that in my anger I 

 put my foot on him, to squeeze out of him some 

 of the eggs and his life with them. 



Again, to quote Mr. R. Russell, 

 Benhall :- 



One night, on a well-known estate in Hamp- 

 shire, I heard a partridge fly from her nest. 

 Going stealthily to the spot I struck a match 



1 Letter to the Gamekeeper, January 1911. 



