149 Partridges. 



always manage to pick up enough to evade starvation. 

 But when a long spell of wet, frost, or snow comes, 

 food proves scarce for several days in succession, 

 and the poor birds are at their wits' end for a 

 sufficiency of nourishment and warmth, particularly the 

 former, and their condition may sometimes become so low 

 that death must supervene. It, therefore, behoves every 

 preserver to take the necessary steps for providing food for 

 the game-birds he has brought together on his estate. It 

 may be considered a duty of every preserver to provide 

 food for partridges in times when the earth is bound up 

 with frost and snow. In a subsequent chapter the ques- 

 tion will receive further consideration. 



Disease sometimes makes its appearance among the 

 partridges, particularly in wet seasons, when they suffer 

 considerably. Tapeworm will affect them and kill off 

 a small percentage, and the presence of this animal 

 within the body quickly reduces the birds to very poor 

 condition, so much so as to render them unfit for table 

 purposes. 



Another disease which, seemingly, hand-reared par- 

 tridges alone suffer from is roup. It is evidently a 

 different form of that malady from the one which 

 attacks the broods of young pheasants, as young 

 partridges still under coop rarely suffer from it, and 

 scarcely ever die in consequence. On the other hand, fully 

 matured birds acquire it, and ofttimes die off by dozens. 

 The most noteworthy symptom is the presence of large 

 swellings on each side of the head, sufficiently prominent 

 to be noticeable during the flight of a covey or individual 

 members of it. Wet seasons serve to account for it. The 

 naturally-reared birds escape its ravages, simply because 

 they are wild birds, whereas, on the other hand, those 

 reared under a barn-door fowl and in a coop do not possess 



