GROUND, STOCK, AND POACHING 205 
from stout pegs, will deter almost any fox from crossing. 
Where, as is often the case, there are four or five, or 
perhaps even a dozen, nests along one hedgerow or 
belt, so simple and cheap a form of protection is 
surely worth trying. The wire can then be stretched 
all along the fence a foot or two below the nests, and 
on both sides if necessary. 
A more elaborate affair is a frame made of wire 
netting of the same pattern as the ordinary rabbit 
netting, but with a five or six inch mesh, made of a 
circular form, in shape like a round dish cover, and 
about three feet six inches in diameter. The fox 
cannot or will not get through the meshes, nor reach 
his paw through to the nest, which is, of course, in 
the centre of the frame, while the sitting partridge 
will creep through the meshes and not disturb herself 
in her incubations.! 
These have been tried with very successful results 
on the Duke of Rutland’s Belvoir estate, another 
property where the stock of partridges had, under 
the old system, fallen to nothing, but which has now, 
under different management, begun to yield very good 
bags. 
1 The only drawback to this invention is that the wire 
frames may too easily indicate the position of nests to egg-stealers 
or poachers. The ground must, therefore, where these are used 
be watched with extra care. 
