250 PARTRIDGES 



surrounding country into one place where 

 they can be broken up and 'hammered.' 

 Unbroken coveys always try to get back 

 to their own ground when they are being 

 pushed far away from home, but once 

 the covey is broken up, the single birds 

 will go wherever they are driven, and the 

 bag mounts apace when partridges are 

 once fairly broken up in good holding 

 cover. The natural instinct is to be 

 always pushing on to fresh ground and 

 fresh birds ; this is almost always a mis- 

 take, especially late in the day. Keepers 

 do not always realize that a drive with 

 only two scattered coveys in it will prob- 

 ably be more prolific in result, if the 

 twenty birds come singly over the guns, 

 than the alternative of a drive off new 

 ground where there may be half-a-dozen 

 unbroken coveys, which will most likely 

 all come over in a swarm and escape with 

 the loss of two or three birds. As a 

 general rule, unless a beat has to be 

 spared in a bad season, it pays best to 

 make the work of the afternoon as far as 



