PARTRIDGE BAGS AND DRIVING 263 



the dressed nests were taken and the others left. That a large 

 number of keepers may approve of evil-smell systems, and 

 disapprove of the Stetchworth partridge, and the Euston 

 pheasant, systems, has no weight with those who know that 

 there are wheels within wheels, which can be specified if 

 necessary. 



That there are smells which destroy or negative others, the 

 author is sure, but he has no belief in drowning one by the 

 strength of another. No retriever can find a dead bird if a 

 man stands close to leeward of the latter and to windward of 

 the dog's nose. Out of politeness to our race, we may consider 

 this negatives the partridge scent and does not merely drown 

 it, but then the deer do not support that view, and can smell 

 a man much farther off than a foxhound can smell a fox. The 

 question arises, What is a strong smell to a fox, a dog, or a 

 deer? 



A gamekeeper can '(because he has done it at Harlaxton, 

 in Lincolnshire) look after 150x5 acres of partridge ground 

 and get hatched off by the Stetchworth plan 1200 eggs, 

 and do it single-handed, so that the expense that the interested 

 critics of this system talk of does not exist. 



The fox has just been condemned as a poacher, but all 

 the same he is a great friend of partridge preservers, if they 

 would only look ahead. The fox is the only influence in this 

 country that prevents half of it becoming poultry runs. He 

 takes his toll, and deserves it. Land will not afford more than 

 a certain amount of insect life, and young partridges cannot 

 live without it. If it were not for the foxes, nearly every farm 

 and field would be a chicken run, and consequently wild bred 

 partridges would be impossible. 



On the other hand, if it were not for the game preserver, 

 hunting would also be impossible in provincial countries and 

 where money is scarce. No foxes could live if the fields were 

 devoted to poultry. The farmer's charges in the absence of 

 game would cause three-parts of the hunts to be abandoned 

 in face of enormous poultry bills. Half the quarrelling over 

 game and foxes is exaggerated in the telling, and the rest is 



