WHERE NESTLINGS FLOURISH.
An odd experiment in promoting the health of nestling birds has met with such surprising success in the case of partridges on one estate that I hardly like to give the figures. The method will appear to some as little credible as the results. It is, however, simple in the extreme. The keeper dusts every discovered clutch of eggs with an insect-killing powder ; and that is all. The multiplication of birds after this device was adopted was so great—as I am told—that the head of partridges shot rose to one-and-a-quarter birds per acre. The theory is that young birds die in cold and wet weather only where their powers of resistance are in some measure weakened by the presence of lice or other minute live-stock ; and if these are kept off the partridge is strong enough to resist the worst attacks that our climate can deliver. The especial fondness of the partridge for dusting (its natural, native remedy against its worst enemies) theoretically supports the reasonableness of providing a more effective dust for the nestlings. The plan, which has been tried in several places for several years and is everywhere reported well of, is worth thorough investigation..
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