178 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 
and whose opportunities are neither so great nor so 
frequent. Many pleasant days have I had with men 
of the B. stamp—and much of the groundwork of 
partridge-shooting did I learn from them. Now, in 
return I must, while thanking them for what they 
taught me, urge upon them that most of the improve- 
ments in the art of managing partridges on closely 
preserved estates include lessons which they, on 
smaller properties, and with less expense, can learn to 
follow on a smaller scale. The half-moon principle, 
for instance, can and should be carried out in minia- 
ture by a party of, say, four or five persons, all told. 
In approaching birds under these conditions, and on 
ground where the boundary must be made a constant 
study, it is of vital importance that somebody should 
be between the birds and the dangerous quarter defore 
they rise. When your party consists of, say, two guns 
and three beaters or keepers, I can conceive very few 
circumstances under which you should move in a 
straight line. One must be prepared to run while 
the other stands still ; one to be forward while the 
other keeps back. It is a game of working well 
together, and though probably one will always be 
the host and manager and the other the guest or 
subordinate in theory, they must in practice consider 
each other equally, and give way as circumstances arise. 
