As to the partridge I see that a number of
correspondents to several newspapers are urging a reform of the Game Laws that has long seemed to me desirable and to be founded on good natural history. Now that there is real danger of the decrease of the partridge the reform has an additional object. We maintain that the close season begins too soon and ends too late. If a fortnight were cut off the open season at each end fewer " squeakers " would be killed, less corn and clover would be damaged, and no birds would be shot after they have paired. This September, even in Norfolk, a great deal of barley is in the fields, some uncut, and a number of the coveys are far from mature. They were hatched from a second lot of eggs laid after a late frost had destroyed the first clutch. An extra reason for postponing the season is that the partridge does its maximum service to the farmer when the stubbles are new.
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