122 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



it is possible ; in the past I have been struck by it, 

 and may be again. 



Some of these partridge chicks were not strong 

 enough to reach the hedge, and crouched in the 

 turf by the road. And here arises another question 

 that of protection by colour and marking. These 

 natty little brown-barred things bore no real likeness 

 to their grassy surroundings. They had no kind 

 colour and mark protection. All that can be claimed 

 for their colour and pattern is that it is not cruel; 

 it does not contrast with environment, and so show 

 them up to the enemy. But I must say that I have 

 seen partridges just out of their shells, and they oddly 

 resembled these shells ; and also harmonised well 

 enough in colour and marking with the rather bare 

 bit of ground where they were hatched. 



One must be very careful to see and record the 

 many cases which tell against the theory of protection 

 by colour and pattern, as well as the cases that tell 

 for it. It may be said that we shall never reach 

 conviction in this manner, that we shall always have 

 chaos instead of cosmos. Then I would rather have 

 chaos. I prefer the half truths of doubt to the whole 

 lies of such conviction the lies in the soul. In these 

 things, is not the known and felt honesty of doubt 

 a better thing, with all its failings, than the secret 

 dishonesty of conviction which often must lurk at 

 the back of the mind ? 



The duet of pheasant and blackbird is a feature 



