242 PARTRIDGES 



comparison with the sister sport of grouse- 

 driving is inevitable. So far as direct 

 benefit to the ground is concerned, the 

 comparison is somewhat unfavourable to 

 the partridge, for while driving on a moor 

 is beyond all doubt wholly beneficial to 

 the stock and is often attended by a 

 truly marvellous increase in the annual 

 yield, no such striking results must be 

 expected on partridge ground as the 

 direct outcome of the adoption of driving. 

 In the former case driving removes from 

 the moor numbers of old cocks and barren 

 hens, as destructive as the worst vermin, 

 and never even seen by the guns when 

 walking or shooting over dogs; in the 

 latter instance, while some good must be 

 done by killing old birds, it is not certain 

 to what extent this influence affects the 

 stock. It is true that the yearly totals 

 killed at Holkham advanced from 3000 

 to 8000 within ten years of the adoption 

 of driving true, and somewhat difficult 

 to explain ; indeed to determine with 

 any certainty how far driving may be 



