80 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 
able stimulus from those who purchase large quantities 
of partridges for turning down upon their private 
estates. Such birds are professedly of foreign origin, 
but a large percentage are supplied by the home 
counties of England. 
Before we take final leave of this subject, it may 
be remarked that there are other methods of poach- 
ing partridges besides netting; notably, snares are 
employed for taking partridges, especially when 
snow is lying on the ground, and the birds are 
hungrily seeking food nearer the homesteads than 
is ordinarily the case. Farm labourers are the chief 
culprits in this respect. Snares are so easily set during 
the performance of other duties that they often escape 
the notice of keepers and landowners, and prove 
highly remunerative to those who’ use them. In the 
North of England especially, the country folk have a 
happy knack of making snares. 
When the sand grouse visited England in 1888, a 
country hind volunteered to snare a whole flock of 
these beautiful species upon the ground on which 
they were accustomed to roost, and, if permitted, 
would certainly have carried his suggestion to a 
successful issue. Such a fate actually befell a whole 
covey of partridges, which had had the misfortune 
to alight within the precincts of a county prison ; it 
