iio Game and Foxes. 



them, and a fox finds it extremely easy to do as 

 he likes with a covey lacking their guidance. In 

 1 a hunting country it is advisable to allow old 

 \ partridges to escape at the opening of the season, 

 and to kill them later on. At night it is the old 

 cock which keeps awake and on the alert to give 

 warning of a fox creeping near, and partridge 

 netters one and all assert that he is the means of 

 saving many a covey just as the net is about to 

 fall and enfold the lot. Old partridges, of experi- 

 ence, are more hkely to rear a brood in a hunting 

 country than young pairs of the previous season, 

 for the writer has proved this over and over 

 again. 

 i Partridge driving late in the day is greatly to 



be condemned, and should not be indulged in if 

 foxes are numerous. If darkness comes on before 

 the broken and intermixed coveys are able to sort 

 themselves, and assemble together, foxes have a 

 rare frolic amongst the birds on the stubbles and 

 fallows. Thoroughly dazed, the partridges sit 

 about in all sorts of places, many of them having 

 crept into fences and ditches, where they fall 

 easy victims to foxes. French partridges suffer a 

 great deal in this way, for they run till tired and 

 then tuck themselves into a hedge. 



There is just one matter which should be 



