ON A PARTRIDGE BEAT 17 



get near this particular magpie, and this made me 

 feel sure his sins were even greater than I knew 

 them to be. One day, in the middle of the after- 

 noon, I saw him flying leisurely, as is the way of 

 magpies, towards my little wood, where he alighted 

 on the top of a tree, of course no doubt where he, 

 and certainly I, thought he was safe. So far off was 

 he that he showed no objection to my walking in 

 full view to the edge of the wood. I felt I was 

 being jeered at, so I let drive at a venture in the 

 direction of the top of the tree. And down came 

 that magpie as if electrocuted. 



Of stoats and weasels there was a fair stock ; but 

 by careful trapping in the hedges and around hay 

 and corn ricks I cleared off the local supply for 

 the time being; that is, till after the hatching 

 season. The desolation which a litter of stoats can 

 effect in a hedge well packed with partridge nests 

 is enough to change a keeper's hair from black to 

 white ; and since as a rule on partridge ground 

 rabbits are available only here and there, stoats do 

 infinitely more harm to winged game than in a 

 wood. Whatever the ' brother-in-law's ' inclinations 

 to lapse from the unexciting pursuit of agriculture, 

 he was one of Nature's sportsmen, and he was ever 

 on the look-out for ' varmints ' of any sort. I came 

 to him one day when he was spreading manure, and 

 he told me he had bagged a crane in the course of 

 his work. Never having heard of more than two 



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