146 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



CHAPTER VI. 



PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS. 



IT is a mistake to think Hodge hates game and game pre- 

 serving ! Such hatred is done for him by those political hot 

 gospellers whose forum is the poacher's tap and larceny 

 their chief creed. The agricultural labourer himself rarely 

 comes within touch of the birds whose names head this 

 chapter. They do his allotment plot no harm, they excite 

 none of that savage envy which the village charlatan would 

 fain propagate in rising under his feet on stubble or gorse. 

 Occasionally he gets a day's pay for a light day's work as a 

 beater to some shooting party, but otherwise his interest 

 is all metaphysical and remote. When his hot gospeller 

 mounts the rostrum, Hodge listens open-mouthed to the new 

 science of spoliation, and in his inner Heart wonders so neat 

 a gentleman can lie so eloquently as it is palpable his tutor 

 does. 



The average countryman knows, in fact, it would not 

 swell his score at the village post-office, to wipe out game 

 from the land. His interest is linked with that of the 

 farmer, and the latter, as his spokesmen freely acknowledged 

 before the Game Law Committee, is advantaged greatly by 

 the popularity with the money- spending classes, which game 

 brings to our counties. 



The rustic could never look upon game as a food supply, 

 our shires would not stand his demand for three years if 

 coverts and stubble were thrown open ; the pleasant freedom 



