Large Families There are more signs that the season is
likely to be one of the best ever for partridges. The stocks were large (owing partly to lack of cartridges and sportsmen), there were no July thunderstorms to bedraggle the young, and the extension of arable farming has been all to the goad. I do not suggest that the spectacle is characteristic, but one of the few coveys I know of consists of no fewer than 17 squeakers. How the bird manages to keep so many eggs warm, much more so many babies, is a wonder. The verdict of the I.C.I., who before, the war" had an experimental partridge farm, was that keepers should take away all eggs in excess of a dozen, on the ground that additional youngsters were wont to become weaklings owing to the parents' difficulties in keeping them warm and well-fed. I wonder: Dieu benit lea grandes families.
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