60 TETRAONID.*. 



"Wet summers and cur dogs" are, as has been remarked, 

 very injurious to game ; but I have no reason to believe that the 

 latter are more numerous now when partridges are scarce, than when 

 they were plentiful. From wet and cold summers the decrease 

 may have originated, as about the same period common swallows 

 {Hirundo rustica) became scarce apparently from that cause, and 

 continued so until the year 1847, when an increase was apparent, 

 and in 1848, when they appeared again (at least around Belfast) 

 in their former numbers — the first time they had done so for 

 about fifteen years. To the fine, dry, and warm weather in the 

 early part of the summers of the last few years, this increase is, I 

 conclude, attributable ; within which period, likewise, a slow but 

 gradual increase of the partridge has taken place. An equal 

 increase of the two species within the same time cannot be 

 expected, as the partridge has many more enemies to encounter, 

 in addition to natural causes, than the swallow has. Opposed to 



the poison ; that wherever this plan has heen extensively carried out, pheasants and 

 partridges have been poisoned by eating the seed, and the partridges have been almost 

 universally found sitting in the position I have already described ; and, lastly, that 

 the men employed in sowing the poisonous seed not unfrequently present the earlier 

 symptoms which occur in the milder cases of poisoning by arsenic." The question 

 was then suggested, " Might not the flesh of birds so poisoned prove injurious when 

 eaten ? " Doctor Fuller cut off the breast of a bird, and gave it to a fine healthy cat. 

 " She ate it with avidity ; but in about half an hour she began to vomit, and vomited 

 almost incessantly for nearly twelve hours, during the whole of which time she evi- 

 dently suffered excessive pain. After this, nothing would induce her to eat any more 

 partridge. I kept her without food for twenty-four hours, but in vain ; she reso- 

 lutely refused to touch an atom more of the bird. This being the case, I gave her 

 some beef and milk, which she eagerly swallowed ; proving, beyond doubt, that her 

 instinct, and not her want of appetite, induced her to forego the dainty meal which 

 had just been offered to her." Dr. Fuller also found, in every part of the flesh of the 

 other bird, strong traces of arsenic ; the bird could not have been eaten by a man 

 without very serious consequences. " It is notorious," says Dr. Fuller, " that many 

 of the dealers in game are supplied through the agency of poachers and others, who 

 have a direct pecuniary interest in supplying them with the largest possible number 

 of birds. It is certain, moreover, that if men of this sort were to find a covey of 

 partridges in a field, dead, but fresh and in good condition, they would not hesitate to 

 send them, with the remainder of their booty, to the poulterer ; who would as cer- 

 tainly, without suspicion, sell them to his customers." The conclusions are, that 

 the practice of steeping seed in arsenical solution may become matter for restrictive 

 legislative interference, both on sanitary and medico-legal grounds." — Copied from the 

 Northern Whig, Dec. 19, 1848. 



A distinguished chemist, questioned by me on the subject, is of opinion that one 

 pickle of wheat subjected to arsenic would be as injurious as four or five steeped in a 

 solution of sulphate of copper. 



