CHAPTER XL PARTRIDGES. 



PROTECTION. 



HPHE protection of partridges is a very different business 

 JL from that of protecting pheasants, the various items of 

 which have had due attention and consideration given them. 

 Pheasant preserving is an expensive and complicated matter 

 up to a certain point. It consists in the main of rearing as 

 many birds as possible and turning them away. It is, in fact, a 

 species of stock raising, only the stock consists of game birds. 

 Partridge preserving, on the other hand, is just what its name 

 implies for the most part, and the protection afforded the 

 birds is the mainstay of their powers of increase. Unless 

 one protects his partridges they die off. You may buy eggs, 

 rear them into birds, and turn them away, but unless you 

 afford some sheltering and care-giving aid, the birds will not 

 increase, nor even maintain their numbers, but will slowly 

 decrease to a mere scattering of covies, very few and very far 

 between. 



Besides this, partridge preserving is dependent upon so 

 many side issues for successful results. Any landed pro- 

 prietor, who has suitable coverts, can rear pheasants and 



