PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 55 



would have been in fine weather. But here is an 

 instance to show how much wilder partridges have 

 become when, so far as the weather is concerned, 

 they ought to lie like the proverbial stones. During 

 the wonderful weather in the autumn of 1908, I 

 went out on four different farms on which not a 

 shot had been fired, and had the greatest difficulty 

 in getting the brace or two I required. And it is no 

 exaggeration to say that on one of the farms, of 

 six hundred acres, there were a thousand partridges. 

 Of course, well walked by an active party of guns 

 and beaters, the birds soon would have tired, owing 

 to the exceptional sultriness. One great cause 

 which, I consider, is equally as responsible as 

 driving for the increasing wildness of partridges is 

 their increasing numbers. Still, I do not mind 

 how wild they become so long as they continue to 

 increase. 



Directly guns come within sight of a field whereon 

 there are a lot of partridges and often when yet 

 a field or two away the birds start running, each 

 lot taking the tip from the other. On they race, 

 possibly to rise and pour over the far hedge in a 

 brown shoal. Perhaps they do not rise, but run 

 through the hedge, so that their pursuers do not 

 enjoy the satisfaction even of seeing them. This sort 

 of thing is very liable to happen when only a small 

 party is out, and the fields are big. The keeper 

 gets the credit of having one bird where he has 



