Partridges Breeding and Rearing. 89 



about this time, so that the sittings which the partridge would 

 otherwise neglect may be quickly brought in and placed 

 under the fowls for further incubation. By carrying this 

 practice out systematically, a large number of nests will, in 

 general, be saved, and particularly on extensive partridge 

 shootings ; the eggs will be hatched off, and even if only 

 50 per cent, of these be brought in, they will result in full 

 grown birds eventually, and the small amount of trouble will 

 be repaid. 



A large number of partridges die during each winter from 

 exposure and disease, but very few from hunger, for be the 

 weather never so severe, they still manage to pick up 

 enough to keep body and soul together. But when a long 

 spell of wet, frost, or snow comes, food proves scarce for 

 several days in succession, and the poor little birds are at 

 their wits' end for a sufficiency of nourishment and warmth, 

 particularly the former, and their condition may sometimes 

 become so low that death must supervene. It, therefore, 

 behoves every true sportsman to do something towards 

 averting such a possible result, by providing food for the 

 game birds he has brought together on his estate. We 

 consider it the bounden duty of every preserver to provide 

 food for partridges in times when the earth is bound up 

 with frost and snow. He or his keeper know well enough 

 where the partridges lie, and the mere scattering of some 

 grain, wheat, barley, or oats along the sheltered hedgerows 

 during severe weather entails but a trifling expenditure, and 

 is sure to do good. We once followed the track on the 

 snow of three partridges round a 12-acre and lo-acre field, 

 and for a long distance in another, and on no portion of their 



