Practical Game-Preserving. 172 



Unfortunately, the winter feeding of partridges is more 

 difficult and less satisfactory an operation than the winter 

 feeding of pheasants. It is easy enough to provide the 

 right description of food; but it is quite another matter 

 to bring it to the actual birds that require it ; for, unless 

 disposed in proper fashion, you are as likely to feed all 

 the fowls of the air as the particular game stock in view. 

 The state of the weather is, of course, the chief guide to 

 the necessities of the partridges, and must also bear upon 

 the manner in which the food is provided for them. Very 

 wet weather, with cold driving winds and periods of heavy 

 snowfall, are those conditions which affect partridges 

 most adversely in their search for food. During the first- 

 named conditions, they will lie so closely, and stick so 

 obstinately to their places of shelter, that they become 

 emaciated and weak before they start out in search of 

 much-needed food, frequently finding then that their 

 strength of wing and limb is unequal to the task of ade- 

 quately providing for themselves. In times of snow, 

 especially when it is followed by severe frost, and every- 

 thing becomes practically ice-bound, partridges suffer 

 severely from the inability to obtain sufficient or any food 

 at all, and with a continuance of it die in large quantities. 

 The scheme of pheasant-feeding which I have already 

 detailed is quite unsuited to the case of partridges, in 

 dealing with which quite a different mode of procedure for 

 providing food in winter must be followed. When bad 

 weather sets in, the preserver must make himself 

 acquainted with the exact localities of his birds. 

 They will be there, either as whole coveys, remnants 

 of such, or in larger or smaller packs. These will 

 be found to pass the night at or near the same spot, and 

 with this for guide it will be no difficult task to deter- 

 mine their prospective feeding-grounds. During hard 



