1 83 Partridges. 



all partridge nests situated within them, so that when the 

 fields are being mown for hay a yard or two square may 

 be left round each nest not brought off. To beat clovers 

 successfully two men and a boy are necessary. The 

 men stretch a line looyds. or more in length, and draw it 

 gently and evenly along the top of the verdure, the boy 

 walking a few yards behind carrying a bundle of sticks, 

 each one having some distinctive mark fixed to one end. 

 Whenever a nest is found it is marked by placing a stick, 

 not near it, but at a certain distance off in a certain 

 direction, these being the same at each nest in every field, 

 or varied from field to field. Thus in the old pastures 

 the mark might be placed fifteen yards to the right of each 

 nest, in the clovers an equal distance to the left. Before 

 the field is mown the keeper can, of course, mark out each 

 nest distinctly ; meanwhile, the sticks prove no guide to 

 egg-stealers, &c. 



The proper time for bushing fields must depend upon 

 the crops growing in them. In barley fields the bushing 

 must be done as soon as the crop has been rolled, oats the 

 same, wheat immediately when sown. For these, brambles 

 are the best to employ, because when cut green and stuck 

 in the earth either end first they continue to grow, and 

 being of the same colour as the corn are almost unobserv- 

 able. Turnips need only be bushed after they are hand- 

 hoed for the last time; fallow land and stubbles, when- 

 ever birds lie in or visit them. 



Before closing this chapter it is well to repeat that the 

 preservation of partridges upon the average estate differs 

 largely from that of other game, being dependent on the 

 one hand on the ever-watchful care of the gamekeeper over 

 his birds and the destruction of vermin ; and on the other, 

 to the cordiality of relations between class and class which 

 is so necessary and delightful a feature of rural life. 



