CHAPTER XVL 



PARTRIDGES : Food and Feeding. 



IN a preceding chapter the feeding of partridges was 

 dealt with up to the stage when a purely grain feed may 

 be offered them, i.e., to the time when the age of the 

 hand-reared birds reaches, say, three months. From this 

 time onward partridge poults may be placed, as far as 

 food goes, upon the same level as mature birds, except as 

 having regard to the fact that the former at this period 

 will, or should, have such a plenitude of natural food 

 before them as should make the provision of any extra 

 provender unnecessary. The tendency, however, of hand- 

 reared partridges to become very tame, the absence of the 

 mother bird, and an occasionally rather pronounced want 

 of self-reliance, prompt them to look for a continuance 

 of the preserver's assistance in this respect, and it is neces- 

 sary at times only, maybe to make provision for them. 

 Once they leave the coops, it is in the interest of the 

 preserver, as well as of those who shoot, that the birds 

 should become entirely self-reliant, even at the expense of 

 the loss of a few of the least fit, so that the provision of 

 food other than they can of themselves discover in the 

 fields should not be made too readily, and then only at 

 evening, when they feed for the last time before roosting. 

 In regard to partridges, I can find far less objection to 

 the use of maize than in connection with pheasants ; but 

 moderation in its employment for feeding is to be recom- 



