Partridges Breeding and Rearing. 87 



An important part of the hand-rearing of partridges is 

 that the coops and runs confining the chicks be moved daily 

 on to fresh untainted ground. With pheasants this is 

 advisable, with partridges a necessity, for it must be con- 

 fessed that although somewhat less liable than the former 

 game birds to the many little ills which attack coop-reared 

 youngsters, they have not the hardihood, or, rather, do not 

 lend themselves so easily to an artificial life, and are con- 

 sequently less easily reared. Gapes, roup, catarrh, and 

 cramp are the maladies most affecting them, and the first, 

 when once acquired, generally proves virulent and difficult 

 to stamp out. The means of prevention, and the steps 

 necessary to be taken to effect a cure, are the same as with 

 pheasants, as is, indeed, every portion of the process of 

 hand-rearing not entered into here. The business is so 

 similar that it would be superfluous to enter into a separate 

 explanation for each. 



As soon as the young partridges are half grown, which is 

 determined by a full development of the feathers, and a 

 general sturdiness of body, the coops must be removed with 

 their broods of hens and chicks to the edge of a cornfield, and 

 placed in a dry spot just within the wheat or oats which we 

 prefer and the young birds be given their liberty, the hens 

 alone being confined. For a few days the partridges will 

 remain about the coop, and perhaps nestle beneath their 

 foster mother's sheltering feathers, but probably before a 

 week is out they will have thrown off all trammels of domes- 

 tication and dependence, and struck out a course of life on 

 their own account, when they may be immediately left to 

 take their chance. Young partridges should only be turned 



