86 Practical Game Preserving. 



prepared bread recommended in Chapter VIII. ; or in Spratts 

 " Crissel." About the third or fourth day some custard 

 may be given, mixed with lettuce, chickweed, plantain (the 

 unripe flower), groundsel, rice broken small and boiled, and 

 small quantities of any small bird seeds. The best way is 

 to make a thinnish custard, and mix some of the other 

 food materials with it, always giving preponderance to the 

 green food. Any insects which may be obtainable may 

 also be given in addition to the ants' eggs, which, it is 

 necessary to remark, ought not to be offered the chicks 

 till the other food has satisfied their appetites. Small snails, 

 and the eggs of snails, any species of live ants, maggots 

 in a chrysalis state only, spiders, and many other similar 

 kinds of insects may be given if they can be obtained, but 

 it must not be imagined that all these are a sine qua non 

 of partridge rearing. The food of young partridges should 

 be varied as much as possible day by day, but if they always 

 have a few insects and plenty of green stuff, the choice 

 of food to be daily given may be left to the preserver; 

 In addition to the articles of diet already mentioned, the 

 following may also find a place in the rations : hard-boiled 

 eggs chopped up small and given within an hour or so of 

 being boiled, crumbs of bread, oatmeal made up into a dry 

 paste with water or " liquor " from boiled meat, an occasional 

 few broken peppercorns, chopped onion, spinach, or half- 

 formed pods of peas. It is a mistake to place young 

 partridges on a grain diet too soon. In a natural state 

 they scarcely touch any at all until several months old, and it 

 certainly cannot be beneficial to force them to the consump- 

 tion of wheat, barley, or oats before they have the desire. 



