CHANGE OF SEASONS AND OF THE TIMES. 293 



birds, knowing* that for eggs you can fall back on 

 those round the house, for wild though those hand- 

 reared birds may be in the shooting season, they 

 will return, as spring approaches, to the spot where 

 they were reared, and be certain to give you a good 

 stock at home. 



It is possible to kill too many partridges on a 

 given site, just as it is possible to kill too many of 

 any other kind of birds ; therefore, to all my brother 

 sportsmen I recommend judicious moderation and 

 circumstantial guidance. We are attached to the 

 scene of the home where we were born, w^e love our 

 old play-grounds, and there is in every man's breast, 

 more or less, an attachment to the site of his birth, 

 which years of joy or misery elsewhere cannot 

 obliterate. The heart of a bird beats in a similar 

 direction, and, though gifted with wings, the bird 

 never entirely forsakes the field or wood that first 

 met its eyes when peeping, from the brooding 

 breast of its mother, at the first glories of the rising 

 sun. It would be well, as the change in ^^ the times" 

 continues, and as change has for once had the better 

 of position now, to seek that mysterious throne of 

 truth, the cavcrned breast of ages gone, whence facts 

 indisputable are handed down to man if he will 



