THE GREY PARTRIDGE 139 



without purchasers there would exist no inducement 

 for the committal of such thefts. Certainly, therefore, 

 it seems to me that the game-preserver holds the 

 remedy very much in his own hands ; avoid pro- 

 miscuous dealings in eggs that is to say, dealings in 

 which the eggs cannot be clearly and indisputably 

 traced as coming from some source above suspicion 

 and then I think we might say, exit egg-thief. Little 

 reflection is needed to bring the conviction that the 

 purchasing of eggs without due inquiry as to their 

 source of origin is bad in principle. This, if only for 

 two obvious reasons first, that by such indiscriminating 

 purchase harm may be done to some brother game- 

 preserver ; and second, that in this way even one's own 

 eggs may be bought. I have not the least doubt that, 

 now and again, eggs have been paid for that were of 

 right already the property of the purchaser. Latterly, 

 game-preservers, realizing that unity is strength, have 

 commenced to band themselves together so that by 

 mutual understanding and agreement they may secure 

 the more efficient protection of their separate interests 

 and estates. 



A most destructive complaint, known as gapes, some- 

 times works havoc with game-birds ; before its ravages 

 the unremitting attentions of the best of game-rearers 

 avail but little. The cause of the trouble has been 

 traced to a minute parasite which infests earthworms. 

 The partridge, or pheasant, as the case may be, swallows 

 the earthworm, and the embryo of this parasite, which 

 is known to scientists as Syngamus trachealis, is liberated 

 and becomes attached to the respiratory organs of its 

 victim, whose death it invariably shortly afterwards 

 brings about. A valuable paper on this parasite was 



