PARTRIDGES 43 



heard sportsmen and keepers discussing how curious 

 is the phenomenon that, whereas on a certain part 

 of a shoot there were * any amount ' of birds up 

 to the beginning of October, after that there were 

 scarcely any, and vice versa. The very simple ex- 

 planation is a question of food. And since it may 

 so happen that fields to which your September 

 supplies of birds may adjourn in October (when 

 wheat is mostly sown) are beyond your boundary, 

 the fact may prove not only curious, but annoying. 



Then partridge coverts are, if not unheard of, 

 unthought of, on ninety-nine shoots out of a hun- 

 dred. By partridge coverts I do not necessarily 

 mean a collection of holding stuff, from which the 

 birds may be shot with greater ease. Why should 

 partridges be compelled to take pot-luck, and yet be 

 growled at without stint when they do not figure in 

 bags reckoned by hundreds of brace ? On grouse 

 moors we all know how carefully the heather is 

 burnt, so that there shall be young shoots for food 

 and old heather for nesting and cover. Thus are 

 grouse catered for as far as the ingenuity, money, 

 and sweat of man can assist them. If they were 

 just left to make the most they could of their natural 

 surroundings, even then they possess an immense 

 advantage over partridges. With partridges, num- 

 berless nests must be destroyed accidentally by 

 farming operations, of which grouse are in no 

 danger. Curiously enough, it is the very men who 



