THE PARTRIDGE 211 



When the eggs have begun to chip they should all 

 be removed to the incubator, except two or three 

 never less than two. When hatching has taken place, 

 the chicks are put into the drying-box, but not kept 

 there very long before removal to the game-hen who 

 is acting as foster-mother. It is wise to see that the 

 hen is well fed before she receives her hatched brood. 

 Chicks should be carefully turned into the coops at 

 night time. After six weeks of artificial feeding they 

 are turned into the cornfields. 



Attention must be drawn here to the practices which 

 have proved so successful at Sketchworth Park. They 

 are described in detail by Mr. Argus Olive in Country 

 Life of 1 4th November 1903: " The partridges are 

 allowed to go on laying until they have started to in- 

 cubate their eggs, then about the third day of sitting 

 their treasures are removed from them and sham eggs 

 are given in their places, so that the birds continue to 

 sit until their own eggs that have been put under hens 

 are chipped. The process is not completed until twenty- 

 five of these chipped eggs are brought to the sitting 

 partridge, whereas probably only fifteen or fewer were 

 taken from her. She is easy enough to deal with, and 

 if she objects to the hand that introduces the eggs and 

 takes away the sham ones, she will not move more than 

 a yard or two, and will come back directly she is 

 allowed to do so. 



" It is not supposed that she would, from the start, 

 incubate twenty-five eggs, but it is a different thing 



