BREEDING-TIME. 53 



the delicate young birds are allowed to drag themselves 

 through it. 



Besides the coops, here and there bushes, cut for the 

 purpose, are piled in tolerably large heaps. The use of 

 these is for the broods to run under if a hawk appears in 

 the sky ; and it is amusing to watch how soon the little 

 creatures learn to appreciate this shelter. In the spring 

 the greater part of the keeper's time is occupied in this 

 way : he spends hours upon hours in the hundred and one 

 minutiae which ensure success. This breeding-time is the 

 great anxiety of the year : on it all the shooting depends. 

 He shakes his head if you hint that perhaps it would save 

 trouble to purchase the pheasants ready for shooting from 

 the dealers who now make a business of supplying them 

 for the battue. He looks upon such a practice as the ruin 

 of all true woodcraft, and a proof of the decay of the 

 present generation. 



In addition to the pheasants, the partridges, wild as 

 they are, require some attention the eggs have to be 

 looked after. The mowers in the meadows frequently lay 

 their nests bare beneath the sweep of the scythe : the old 

 bird sometimes sits so close as to have her legs cut off by 

 the sharp steel. Occasionally a rabbit, in the same way, 

 is killed by the point of the blade as he lingers in his 

 form. The mowers receive a small sum for every egg 

 they bring, the eggs being placed under brood hens, kept 

 for the purpose. But as a partridge's egg from one field 



