CHAPTER XVIL 



PARTRIDGES : Protection. 



THE protection of partridges is a very different business 

 from that of protecting pheasants, the various items of 

 which have had due attention and consideration given 

 them. Partridge-preserving is just what its name implies 

 for the most part, and the protection afforded the birds 

 is the mainstay of their powers of increase. Unless 

 partridges are protected they die off. All the means 

 recommended for increasing the stock of birds may 

 be employed, but unless some sheltering aid is afforded, 

 the birds will not increase eventually, nor even maintain 

 their numbers, but will slowly decrease to a mere scatter- 

 ing of coveys, few and far between. 



Besides this, partridge-preserving is dependent upon so 

 many side issues for successful results. Any landed pro- 

 prietor who has suitable coverts can rear pheasants and 

 preserve them, but partridges require far different 

 conditions for existence, which are mainly found in the 

 cultivated fields of the farmer, whose ideas of what is 

 necessary very often differ from those of the landlord, or 

 the proprietor of the shooting. The result of this diver- 

 gence of opinion respecting game-preserving may prove 

 most unpleasant. Of course, there are more farmers who 

 support game-preserving than find it a grievance, and 

 who are first to look after the partridges' weal ; but it 

 must be remembered that there are men who imagine that 



