314 PARTRIDGES 



brought to the guns. So when they have 

 their organized days, they are organized 

 to some purpose, which means another 

 heavy total marked up against them by 

 their critics, but when they have an off- 

 day's marauding they will be found will- 

 ing to work as hard as any one to kill 

 a dozen head. 



The practice of scientific game pre- 

 servation, with its attendant increase in 

 results, was firmly established on the 

 Continent a hundred years before it found 

 any foothold in England. Indeed the 

 whole idea of organized shoots was quite 

 misunderstood in this country ; the 

 popular idea was that the game from 

 miles away was all collected in nets, and 

 that the heavy totals recorded were 

 nothing but "a wanton registry of 

 slaughter such as no sportsman can read 

 without regret " a totally erroneous con- 

 clusion, for where game can by scientific 

 methods be induced to increase, there can 

 surely be no reasonable objection to there 

 being plenty of it. 



