METHODS OF PRESERVATION OF PARTRIDGES 249 



part badly. All destroyed nests, as well as those that looked 

 likely to be destroyed, could now have their eggs hatched 

 without the intervention of those fowls that always want to 

 start laying again just as they are most desired to keep their 

 foster game chicks from " sowing wild oats." 



Obviously The Grange plan would not have been of much 

 use had not a very careful record been kept of when each bird 

 began to sit ; for it was necessary that eggs added after the laying 

 season should only be those in precisely the same advanced 

 state of incubation as those already in the nest. Someone has 

 said that the cock bird goes off with the first chicks hatched, 

 and leaves the hen to manage the other eggs ; but this is not so, 

 and if added eggs are twenty-four hours behind the others they 

 will generally be left unhatched in the nest. 



Probably all the great partridge estates have advanced as 

 far as this. It marks the time at Holkham in the north of 

 Norfolk as well as Orwell Park in the south of Suffolk. But 

 although these two estates are hard to beat in the matter of big 

 days, the partridge yield is not the highest per acre on either of 

 these celebrated estates, and never has been. At Holkham 

 about 8000 birds on 12,000 acres is the most that has been done. 

 At Orwell 6000 birds upon 18,000 acres is not regarded as 

 bad. Both of these estates are considered the best possible land 

 for partridges, and both of them have also the advantage that 

 foxes are particularly scarce in the districts of Norfolk and 

 Suffolk. No Hungarian birds have ever been used at Holkham, 

 although eggs are exchanged for fresh blood. At Orwell this 

 method is also practised, and as many as 1000 eggs in a season 

 have been obtained from Cumberland and Hampshire, by 

 exchange with Sir R. Graham and Lord Ashburton. Nests are 

 made up to 20 eggs at Orwell, and occasionally eggs are placed 

 under hens until hatched, when the young birds are given to 

 old partridges on the point of hatching out. But here the 

 appearance of the old sitting birds is relied upon to indicate 

 when that time comes. Thus, when two partridges are seen 

 sitting on the same nest, it is taken for granted that the egg- 

 chipping stage has been reached. 



