60 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



for such a bird, I have received the information 

 that it cannot possibly run, since both its legs are 

 broken. Fortunately, both for itself and the keeper 

 who has to look for it, the bird, as a rule, falls dead 

 always, in my experience, when it gives a pre- 

 liminary upward twist. But when it glides down, 

 say, on the fringe of a hedge, there is nothing in 

 the shape of broken legs to prevent it from running. 

 The cause of the stilt-like hanging of leg or legs 

 is a wound in the back which paralyzes, temporarily 

 or otherwise, the nerves controlling the usual tucked- 

 up position of the legs during flight. 



We all know the disappointment of losing a 

 partridge from which has come the proverbial 

 cloud of feathers, though positive that it could 

 not have got more than just over the hedge. In 

 fact it may have gone over the horizon. The 

 fewer the feathers that come from a bird at 

 sporting range, the more likely is it to have been 

 hit in a fatal spot. The cloud of feathers is 

 likely enough to be produced by shot ploughing 

 through the mass of feathers above the tail. That 

 is to say, you sometimes and I (often) have shot 

 a bit too far behind a bird which was rising im- 

 perceptibly. A few golden inches forwarder and 

 the rising would not have mattered. When I have 

 been out with good shots which was a treat I 

 did not get very often I have found it profitable 

 to watch birds going away, apparently after being 



