ioo Practical Game Preserving. 



that is, we should judge, but cannot state authoritatively, 

 cocks which have fought for a mate and received a " licking." 

 Anyhow, they do not attempt to pair, but four, five, or six 

 of them will club together, and prevent other birds from 

 bringing their breeding preparations to any material result. 

 These bachelors should always be destroyed, as well as 

 what are technically termed " hen cocks" that is, birds 

 which suffer, as hen pheasants do also, from a disease of 

 the ovary, which precludes their breeding, when they assume 

 the colouring of cock birds, and act in the manner of 

 " bachelors." These must also be killed off, for they worry 

 the nesting hens to such an extent that the latter are often 

 unable to deposit two eggs on the same spot. Everyone 

 has found single partridge eggs lying about in any and odd 

 places. This is the result of the presence of " bachelors" 

 and " hen cocks" on the preserves. 



During the nesting season it should be one of the most 

 important duties of the keeper to "beat" the clovers and 

 meadow grass with a view to the discovery and marking of 

 all partridge nests situated within them, so that when the 

 fields are being mown for hay a yard or two square may be 

 left round each nest not brought off. To beat clovers, two 

 men and a boy are necessary. The men stretch a line about 

 one hundred yards in length, and draw it gently and evenly 

 along the top of the verdure, the boy walking a few yards 

 behind carrying a bundle of sticks, each one having some 

 distinctive mark fixed to one end. Whenever a nest is 

 found it is marked by placing a stick not near it, but at a 

 certain distance off in a certain direction, these being the 

 same at each nest in every field, or varied from field to field. 



