HOPE FOR THE COVEYS.
Partridges, as well as the 'harvest in which they delight, IfiVe. flourished -this 'season ;"- but Oleic ale soiree "exceptions difficult to . diagnose. Some sporting . writers have been suggesting that the partridge is a vanishing species.; and there-are certainly wide areas in the western end of England where you are, lucky to find one covey within a parish. Pro- bably the rapid spread of the dairying industry has been fatal to the species. Partridges are most plentiful where grain farming is best, as in such districts as Newmarket. The birds' -paradise is a barley stubble. -Grass fields and many foxes are not conditions precedent to a large stock of birds. But when all is said there is no county where the extinction of the partridge is -a danger ; and if this bumper harvest is to open, as some hope, a revival of grain farming, there is hope for the sportsman who considers the partridge the best bird .that flies, and for the bird-lover who considers it among the
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