254 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



1 200 wild bred pheasants. In the New Forest, Lord Montague 

 manages to kill about 4000 more pheasants than he rears by 

 hand, and there is no doubt that the latest phase of pre- 

 servation is directly opposite to that of ten and fifteen years 

 ago, when the keepers did everything possible for the pheasants 

 and practically nothing for the partridges. 



Crosses with the Mongolian pheasants have been tried in 

 many places, and they are everywhere reported easy to rear, 

 some people have said as easy as chickens, but they have not 

 been tried, as far as is known to the author, in the wild state, 

 and whether the ease of rearing by hand will be confirmed in 

 that state of nature will make very much difference to the 

 future of pheasant preserving. On the other hand, several 

 people have reported that the cross-bred Mongolian birds 

 drive away the common birds from the food, and for this 

 reason they will not be continued in at least one quarter. At 

 the same time, they are said to fly higher than the birds we 

 have already, but that again is not much of a recommendation, 

 since our pheasants can be made to fly high enough by judicious 

 handling, and no pheasants will fly high unless circumstances 

 compel them to do so. 



The author believes that the map system of partridge pre- 

 servation was originated by Marlow, the keeper at The Grange, 

 in Hampshire, and it is entirely due to this plan that the 

 Euston system with the pheasants, and the short incubation 

 system with partridges, as practised at Stetchworth, was made 

 possible. The map is an important item in the organisation of 

 preservation on this last-named estate, where, amongst other 

 eggs that are carried out to partridges sitting on unfertile 

 pheasants' eggs, are a number of chipped Hungarian partridges' 

 eggs. This plan of mixing the Hungarian eggs with those of 

 the home birds is the best and surest way of effecting a cross 

 of blood in the following year. 



It would not be wise to compare Stetchworth bags with 

 those of Holkham, because the conditions are so different. 

 At the former a day consists of a dozen drives, at the latter 

 of about 22, or that was the number when the record 4749 in 



