!6i Partridges. 



handled, the birds soon become less fearsome and more 

 reconciled to their peculiar surroundings, and learn to know 

 those who feed and attend to them. It is necessary, 

 however, that the birds should be fully protected from 

 disturbance and fright from vermin and possible 

 intruders. The novelty of the system excites interest, and 

 unauthorised persons and visitors are very prone to seek 

 close acquaintance with what is going on, a fact which 

 should be carefully guarded against. 



As soon as it is evident that the birds have thoroughly 

 settled down and become accustomed to the moderate 

 confinement imposed upon them, access may be offered 

 them to the smaller pens ; but this must not be done at too 

 early a stage, otherwise they never seem to settle down 

 properly. From the time they are turned in, the birds 

 must be regularly and properly fed with suitable grain, 

 and be supplied with the necessary drinking-water. Corn 

 in the straw may be provided for them, and loose grain 

 scattered about the pen. With but ordinary attention they 

 then do well throughout the winter months. As soon as 

 the mating season approaches, which in the case of 

 partridges thus handled comes earlier as a rule than with 

 wild birds, or, at any rate, is not interrupted so severely 

 by spells of bad weather, the birds begin their mating, 

 exactly as do those in a free and untrammelled state. As 

 soon as the fact becomes evident, it will be necessary to 

 catch up any unpaired birds and turn them adrift, or to 

 try them in separate and smaller pens. 



It is now that the advantages of this system first become 

 apparent, because before the actual nesting commences 

 amongst the birds the majority of the hens will drop eggs 

 promiscuously about the enclosure. Some of them also 

 will lay to the same nest, or rather laying-place, and 

 altogether the birds are found to lay much more freely than 



M 



