140 A GAMEKEEPER'S NOTE-BOOK 



In a wretched hatching season, the best luck is 

 often with the intermediate early broods. They fare 

 least badly. As to second nests, it never makes 

 much difference to September's sport whether they 

 prosper or not. A covey of a dozen, in a September 

 following a wet June, is a good covey. The most 

 general coveys are coveys of old birds or coveys 

 consisting of one young bird ! There is no more 

 reliable sign of a poor partridge crop than a good year 

 for roots. 



We remember how an experienced keeper was quite 

 at sea in his judgment of a particular covey. It 



had been a bad season, and after the corn 

 A Covey h a( j b een cu t he knew of only one good 

 Ancients c vey ; it numbered nine birds, and fine 



forward birds they were. On this covey 

 he set great store against the coming of September. 

 It happened that he was bidden to shoot a couple of 

 brace of young birds for dinner at " the house " on 

 the First. With his first shot at the covey he bagged 

 the old cock. He pursued the rest of the covey, 

 bagged another bird, also an old cock. Disappointed 

 but still hopeful, again he pursued the covey, again 

 he bagged another bird, and again it was an old cock 

 that fell to his gun. He went on until he bagged the 

 ninth and last bird, and the ninth was no better than 

 all the others. It was a sad keeper who went home 

 that day with his nine old birds. Ever since he has 



