38 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 
them ‘clouds of birds.’ What, perhaps, has im- 
pressed me most in the delightful years spent 
among game-birds is the general scarcity of part- 
ridges on the majority of shoots compared to the 
supply there might be. Only here and there is 
there partridge ground, reasonably suited to their 
needs, which carries a tenth—even a hundredth— 
of the birds there might be, and ought to be quite 
easily. Simply because partridges try to help them- 
selves they are generally denied the assistance which 
is lavished on less deserving birds. Altogether, the 
usual treatment which partridges meet with is totally 
unwarranted and grossly unjust. It is crying aloud 
for speedy improvement. Even I, in the wilds of 
my beloved Hampshire, have heard of recent years 
enough about ‘social reform and betterment’ to 
keep me going for the rest of my life. But I have 
heard little of partridge reform. On the majority 
of so-called partridge shoots what birds do manage 
to exist are subjected, from one year’s end to 
another, to what amounts to nothing else than per- 
secution by day and night. Moreover, the persecu- 
tion during the legal shooting season is the worst 
part of the whole thing. This is much more directly 
under the control of the holders of sporting rights 
than the more or less inevitable persecution by 
vermin during the productive season. 
Take the period of the year between February 2 
and August 31—what about the partridges then? 
