244 PARTRIDGES 



wonders on their ground is to court 

 disappointment. 



There is a fallacious theory that driv- 

 ing brings about a change of blood 

 among partridges. For 'partridges' 

 read 'grouse' and the theory can be 

 accepted as fact, for grouse have not 

 the homing instinct so strongly developed, 

 and doubtless to some extent stay where 

 the end of a day's driving finds them ; 

 but the partridge, on the other hand, is 

 peculiarly local in its habits, and the 

 same covey, or its shattered fragments, 

 will after many drives always be found 

 back on their own ground. A good 

 way to kill off the old stock and retain 

 the young is to drive early in the season 

 on a hot day. After they have been 

 hustled about a bit the young birds will 

 not rise, and then practically all the 

 birds that go over the guns will be old 

 ones that the ground is better without. 



In some respects it is easier to drive 

 grouse than partridges. On a moor, when 

 the right way of taking a drive has once 



