PARTRIDGES 4* 



of corn round unthrashed stacks, the crumbs merely 

 of the rooks' stolen feasts. Would you not be 

 horrified to think that your pheasants fared on the 

 leavings of rooks ? 



In winter weather the principal foods of partridges 

 are young clover and the leaves of root crops, with 

 odds and ends of various green-stuffs and weeds. 

 These they must eat or starve. I have seen part- 

 ridges actually perched on a hedge devouring hips. 

 On the other hand, pheasants, besides enjoying the 

 shelter and warmth of the woods, are seldom with- 

 out some arrangement for supplementing such wild 

 provender as they may find, chiefly in a varying 

 crop of acorns and beech-mast, not to mention the 

 many delicacies easily discovered lurking among 

 the thick carpet of fallen leaves. To crown their 

 comparatively riotous natural living, a keeper will 

 come round once or twice a day with gallons of 

 maize and choice seed mixtures, the latter often 

 made appetizing, or the reverse, with chemical 

 condiments. To amuse themselves with between 

 meals, there are always available barley, wheat, 

 and oat rakings sideboard dishes piled in con- 

 venient stacks in the cosy corners of the coverts. 

 The pheasants even enjoy the services of a man 

 to pull out the rakings, so that they may the 

 more easily wallow in ceaseless feastings. Give 

 half, a quarter, or even a tenth, of this corn to 

 the partridges, and when the days of reckoning 



