THE PARTRIDGE 199 



on the part of the keeper. If there be good partridge 

 ground, the partridges ought to be there. If there be 

 none, or if there be only a poor stock, it indicates an 

 indifferent sportsman or a casual keeper. 



Of course these remarks are made with a full recogni- 

 tion of the fact that the keeper's department may be 

 undermanned. But that fact is to be taken into account 

 in all we have to say as to the keeper's duties. But 

 we intentionally leave out of account those rare cases 

 where one keeper has perhaps in his charge a fairly 

 extensive moor, a rabbit warren, and several stretches 

 of good cover, and whose time is fully taken up on 

 these preserves, trapping, draining, and watching. Such 

 conditions, being rare, need not trouble us. It cannot 

 be said, as a rule, that keepers are overworked. Their 

 duties and responsibilities are great, and there is no 

 more popular fallacy than to imagine that their occupa- 

 tion is but a very pleasant form of an idle country life. 

 But the care and protection of a stock of partridges, 

 although requiring considerable time, patience, and skill, 

 need not prove irksome to any keeper who is at all 

 interested in his profession. 



In the majority of cases the partridge ground is at 

 his very door, and more easy of control than the moor, 

 which may stretch miles beyond his immediate circum- 

 ference. And although such be the case, it is a 

 notorious fact that on many shootings the information 

 one can obtain as to the number, position, and condition 

 of partridge nests and eggs is lamentably poor, and a 



