Vanishing Coveys Investigations made this week into the diminution of
the partridge coveys indicate that the cause is starvation and not thirst. The drought is a secondary cause. The primary is the astonishing paucity of insect food. It is not at first blush quite apparent why insects fail in dry seasons, for warmth is an essential for the hatching of many of them ; and sonic insects are in quite exceptional numbers. Personally I have never seen the turnip fly so active. They have skinned the leaves of almost every swede in one field, and in one garden turnips have been killed to a plant. Beetroot and carrots have suffered similarly from insect attacks ; and the wire worm has enjoyed a bumper year. Nevertheless, it is true that many insects need a considerable amount of moisture for their healthiest conditions. On some of the clay soils in the East Midlands food has been as scarce for the young partridges as for the young storks in Germany, where (it is reported) the old birds have on occasion destroyed their young rather than let them and their parents suffer from starvation. The lack of frogs is the trouble in their case. As to the partridges, their numbers have been reduced in some districts by the abnormal multiplication of the rabbits, which are a greater enemy to the partridge than is generally realized.
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