METHODS OF PRESERVATION OF PARTRIDGES 253 



were lost in a few days in 1904, the next season saw better 

 results than ever. 



The Duke of Portland has converted his Welbeck property 

 of light limestone subsoil into a great partridge district, and 

 has employed large quantities of Hungarian birds to effect 

 the change, having turned out as many as 1200 birds 

 at one time. Like Rushmore, the Duke's property is not well 

 watered, and there is no doubt whatever that running or 

 stagnant water is not necessary to young partridges when at 

 large. At any rate, there are a number of very fine partridge 

 estates on which it would be quite impossible for the birds to 

 drink, except the dew, until they were able to delight in flights 

 of three-parts of a mile. At Moulton Paddocks, near New- 

 market, Mr. F. E. R. Fryer, who is as admirable as a preserver 

 as he is as a shot, supplies pans of water in his fields for the 

 partridges. He adjoins those great shootings of Chippenham 

 and Cheveley, and as he has scored nearly i| birds to the 

 acre, or 700 birds on 500 acres in the year, his management 

 must be beyond reproach. That is more than twice as many 

 birds per acre as at Lord Leicester's fine place, Holkham ; but 

 then with such neighbours as Mr. Fryer has, it is a less difficult 

 task to keep a very high stock on a small than upon a large 

 place. 



In Oxfordshire, Mr. J. F. Mason, of Eynsham Hall, has 

 reverted to the system that his neighbour Lord Ducie practised 

 in the Chipping Norton district in the sixties of last century. 

 That is, he breeds large quantities of partridges by hand ; but 

 the wet destroyed his chances in 1905. 



In Scotland, Sir John Gladstone has had admirable success 

 with Hungarian eggs, and Sir William Gordon Gumming has 

 tried the French system on a larger scale than most people. 

 At Stetchworth the partridge keepers have no pheasant rearing 

 to do; and of course this is the case where there are no 

 pheasants reared by hand, as at Euston in Suffolk and 

 Honingham in Norfolk. At the latter place, Mr. Fellowes, 

 lately Minister of Agriculture and a great farmer, makes his 

 estate of 4500 acres yield nearly 3000 partridges, and also 



