THE PARTRIDGE 215 



to take up the French system to buy one of the pam- 

 phlets which devotes itself entirely to such details. 



4. The Improvement of the Stock by the Introduction 

 of Eggs from other Breeding-Grounds, and the 

 Importation of Foreign (chiefly Hungarian] Par- 

 tridges. 



In many instances nowadays it is to be feared that 

 sportsmen expect too large a bag of game they are 

 not content with the bags of half a century ago. The 

 constant attempts to make ground carry a larger stock 

 of birds than Nature intends it to, is creating an arti- 

 ficial situation, and this has many risks, and must tend 

 to disappointments. If these are to be avoided, the 

 sportsman should try to gauge the stock of game his 

 land will reasonably carry with fair attention and 

 feeding. 



Enough has been written with regard to the criminal 

 abuse of the practice of buying eggs for the purpose of 

 improving stock, and it is again referred to in another 

 chapter. Far and away the best method is to obtain 

 the eggs from a friendly sportsman. Rather than buy 

 eggs from strangers, it is better to lay down Hungarian 

 partridges or buy Hungarian eggs. This remark, of 

 course, is made with the object in view of counteracting 

 the dishonesty that is apt to be associated with the trade 

 in eggs. 1 1 is most necessary to state that eggs obtained, 

 for the purpose of being placed in the nests of parent 

 partridges, must be freshly laid ; if incubation has com- 



