PARTRIDGE REARING 
We all know how some fields, especially seeds, hold unusual numbers 
of birds late in the season, they have evidently gathered in these places 
because of the abundance of food, and when any particular field is ex- 
hausted as regards the food supply, they shift elsewhere, perhaps over 
the boundary to ground which may prove more permanently attractive 
to them. The farmer will very likely say, “Why, my seeds be all eaten up 
with they partridges ; they be like a flock of starlings, and I shan’t have 
a seed left.’’ All this can be prevented by the hand -feeding recommended 
above. Much of the damage to seed fields attributed to partridges is 
caused by the large flocks of wood pigeons who are the real culprits. 
When first hatched there is no ripe corn of any sort for them to feed on, 
so that they cannot do much harm to the corn crops. 
For several years the writer has annually reared a covey of partridges 
which have been cut out of young grass, or have met with some other 
untoward disaster ; these eggs having been hatched off by a bantam, 
the covey has been given the run of the garden, and very tame and bold 
they soon became. From close observation of these young birds I am 
certain that they live almost entirely, during the first six weeks of their 
life, on minute insects ; they spread out in line and carefully examine every 
blade of grass or vegetable leaf as the case may be for any insect, no 
matter how small, and the excitement over a spider, or a daddy longlegs, 
is something prodigious, two or three eagerly chasing it, very often jump- 
ing up some distance to secure the prize. 
It is, of course, very difficult to prove that the wild coveys feed to the 
same extent on insect food, but it is practically certain that this is the 
case, for the fact that a spell of cold dry weather, when insect life 
becomes very scarce, has a disastrous effect on the young coveys, goes 
far to prove how dependent they are on this food for their living. Think, 
then, of the myriads of aphides, beetles, daddy longlegs, wireworms, 
and other pests of the farmer that even one covey must rid the ground 
of in the course of two or three months ! 
When the young have reached the age of six weeks they greedily devour 
the juicy leaves of various weeds, together with their seeds; here again 
they must be of great assistance to the farmer. It is only after the corn is 
cut and carried that they get much of the scattered grain which would 
otherwise be wasted; and in September and October, when the insect life 
is at its greatest development, they will still be hard at work assisting the 
farmer in keeping them within reasonable bounds. One reason why part- 
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