38 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



them ' clouds of birds.' What, perhaps, has im- 

 pressed me most in the delightful years spent 

 among game-birds is the general scarcity of part- 

 ridges on the majority of shoots compared to the 

 supply there might be. Only here and there is 

 there partridge ground, reasonably suited to their 

 needs, which carries a tenth even a hundredth 

 of the birds there might be, and ought to be quite 

 easily. Simply because partridges try to help them- 

 selves they are generally denied the assistance which 

 is lavished on less deserving birds. Altogether, the 

 usual treatment which partridges meet with is totally 

 unwarranted and grossly unjust. It is crying aloud 

 for speedy improvement. Even I, in the wilds of 

 my beloved Hampshire, have heard of recent years 

 enough about ' social reform and betterment ' to 

 keep me going for the rest of my life. But I have 

 heard little of partridge reform. On the majority 

 of so-called partridge shoots what birds do manage 

 to exist are subjected, from one year's end to 

 another, to what amounts to nothing else than per- 

 secution by day and night. Moreover, the persecu- 

 tion during the legal shooting season is the worst 

 part of the whole thing. This is much more directly 

 under the control of the holders of sporting rights 

 than the more or less inevitable persecution by 

 vermin during the productive season. 



Take the period of the year between February 2 

 and August 31 what about the partridges then? 



