240 SHOOTING THE PARTRIDGE 
afford to leave all sordid or pecuniary considerations 
on one side. The pleasures or profits arising from 
this beautiful sport should be as much as possible 
shared by those living on and around a game estate. 
In whatever way you choose to do it, you should so 
manage by tact, courtesy, and, above all, liberality, 
that farmers, labourers, and neighbours must perceive 
that their interests and yours are to a great extent 
identical on the question of game. The better your 
shooting the better for them should be the motto for 
both. 
It should surely not be a matter of great difficulty 
to educate the farmers and labourers to this point of 
view. Partridges are no enemies to the farmer. They 
are largely insectivorous birds, and as they are a purely 
indigenous race it is very certain that they have their 
place in the balance of nature in these islands. Up 
to the time when the corn is ripe they feed entirely 
on insects and seeds of grasses, as well as of plants 
which, from a farming point of view, are weeds. The 
amount of grain which they eat, even where they exist 
in large numbers, is insignificant, and as they do not 
attack the corn in the ear, nor plunder the stukes, nor 
injure the stems of crops, their share of the grain pro- 
duced, entirely picked from the ground itself, would 
in their absence be almost entirely wasted. 
