256 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



much larger breeding stock being left. Sir William Gordon 

 Gumming believes that given good weather the bag will again 

 be doubled, so that there is reason to believe that there is, after 

 all, no " best " about the new systems, but that a combination 

 of all may be better than any. Sir William Gumming adds that 

 after doubling his bag two years in succession he has left in 

 the second more birds to breed than he usually commences 

 the shooting season with. 



The following are explanatory letters from Sir W. Gordon 

 Gumming and his keeper : 



" ALTYRE, FORRES, N.B. 

 "26. i. 06 



" DEAR SIR, I have adopted what is called the ' French 

 system ' of partridge rearing for the last two years. Formerly 

 I used to buy 20 couple of Hungarians and turn them loose at 

 different parts of my estate. I could see no appreciable 

 difference in the result. I have now built a pen, 40 by 60 

 yards, into which I turn 60 couple Hungarians male and female 

 in equal (?) proportions about the middle of November. A 

 man is told off to feed and look after them. The birds are 

 ' brailed ' before being put in i.e., a small specially constructed 

 strap confines some of the upper wings sufficient to prevent 

 flight. The pen is supplied with gravel, bushes, water, etc., turfed 

 3 feet all round, and plentifully trapped outside. Rats and cats 

 are to be dreaded. About the pairing-time the man in charge 

 is constantly on the watch for any couple who appear to be 

 inclined to matrimony it is a mistake to think that any two 

 birds will marry, they are extremely particular on the point, 

 and many remain celibates altogether. Any amorous couple 

 is quietly herded into one of two pens which are in the 

 enclosure, and at once transferred to a separate establishment, 

 where are some 30 small circular pens, about 27 feet in 

 diameter, and there they reside till eggs result. The first lot 

 of eggs is usually transferred to a hen ; the next batch is 

 looked after by the partridges themselves ; occasionally a hen 

 dies, when the cock will nearly always take up her duties. Any 

 birds that refuse to pair are simply turned out. I calculate we 

 averaged 19 young birds to every couple so treated last season. 

 I commenced serious shooting late in September, and more 

 than doubled my bag of last season, leaving on November 10, 

 1905, a larger stock of birds at expiration of the shooting 



