ON A PARTRIDGE BEAT 7 
get near this particular magpie, and this made me 
feel sure his sins were even greater than I knew 
them to be. One day, in the middle of the after- 
noon, I saw him flying leisurely, as is the way of 
magpies, towards my little wood, where he alighted 
on the top of a tree, of course—no doubt where he, 
and certainly I, thought he was safe. So far off was 
he that he showed no objection to my walking in 
full view to the edge of the wood. I felt I was 
being jeered at, so I let drive at a venture in the 
direction of the top of the tree. And down came 
that magpie as if electrocuted. 
Of stoats and weasels there was a fair stock; but 
by careful trapping in the hedges and around hay 
and corn ricks I cleared off the local supply for 
the time being; that is, till after the hatching 
season. The desolation which a litter of stoats can 
effect in a hedge well packed with partridge nests 
is enough to change a keeper’s hair from black to 
white ; and since as a rule on partridge ground 
rabbits are available only here and there, stoats do 
infinitely more harm to winged game than in a 
wood. Whatever the ‘ brother-in-law’s’ inclinations 
to lapse from the unexciting pursuit of agriculture, 
he was one of Nature’s sportsmen, and he was ever 
on the look-out for ‘ varmints’ of any sort. I came 
to him one day when he was spreading manure, and 
he told me he had bagged a crane in the course of 
his work. Never having heard of more than two 
a 
