179 Partridges. 



by placing their foot on a nestful of olive-brown eggs they 

 strike a blow in the cause of tenant-right or labourers' 

 grievances. It is against this sort of thing that the 

 partridge-preserver may have to contend, besides the 

 poacher and the vermin, and tact in this respect is neces- 

 sary. If the man who owns or rents a shooting over the 

 land of farmers who take the unkind view of things 

 attempts to deal in any harsh or overbearing manner with 

 this kind of poaching for such it is he will have prob- 

 ably poor sport for his pains, and suffer losses which might 

 otherwise be avoided. 



I have referred to this matter now, because it is in the 

 preserving of partridges that it comes most to the fore, 

 and because good sport in the month of September can 

 only be expected when good feeling prevails between the 

 cultivator of the soil and the preserver of the game. 



The partridge suffers more from attacks by vermin than 

 any other of our game-birds. It is the least difficult for 

 winged and furred marauders to capture and destroy, and 

 it possesses less means of defending itself against their 

 rapacity. From the eggs to the full-grown bird, every 

 varmint that runs or flies is on the look-out for them. 

 The polecat, where still in evidence, kills the hen bird 

 on her nest, and the broods of young; the stoat carries 

 on the same practice, while both of these vermin may 

 destroy a covey in the night ; weasels are for ever on the 

 look-out for the eggs, and cats have a nasty knack of 

 killing the females whilst sitting. Foxes are equally 

 delinquent, whilst the poaching dog is responsible for the 

 loss of many birds and broods. 



Of the feathered marauders I need say little, but it will 

 be to the point. They are all equally bad hawks, crows, 

 rooks, magpies, and jays. Even the common snake can- 

 not resist them ; and young birds, as well as the eggs of 



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