

CHAPTER XV, 



PARTRIDGES: Hungarian Birds. The Continental System. 



IT is, comparatively speaking, only of recent years that 

 partridge-preservation upon a more extended scale, and in 

 a kindred manner to pheasant-preservation, has been 

 adopted upon many of those larger estates which have 

 established a record and furnished a model to many of 

 less extent. Two or three causes have contributed to the 

 change of practice. In the first place, driving, for one 

 or more reasons, has almost entirely superseded shooting 

 over dogs, and it naturally follows that where the sport 

 is quicker and more concentrated, as it is when birds are 

 driven, a greater quantity of quarry is required to make it 

 more than a passing incident, as it would be if old methods 

 were relied upon. It is not, however, given to more than 

 a few to discard them, and what is, after all, the everyday 

 practice of the great bulk of preservers could not be 

 entirely ignored. At the same time, the newer and more 

 successful methods must slowly become almost general 

 upon any shootings laying claim to up-to-date methods. 



Then, again, we have for more than a decade suffered 

 severely from recurring bad partridge seasons so much 

 so that, commencing with the importation of Hungarian 

 and other foreign-bred partridges, various remedies have 

 been sought for recouping past losses, and for increasing 

 the stock of birds, so as to bring partridge manors proper 

 up to latter-day requirements. Following upon the mere 



