POOR PARTRIDGES I remember, when I was a boy and
lived with my grandfather, I often used to be called out to hear the corncrake, and many an hour 1 spent, in my innocence, trying to locate the bird in the long grass. The corncrake's cry is a sound I remember now with nostalgia, like a stone on the blade of a scythe, and these two or three seasons past I have wondered whether I may one day remember another ground bird with heavy heart as I do when I think of the call of the crake. Partridges are going through critical years in my part of the world. I haven't seen anything like as many this year as last. Early hay cutting, the use of young grass for silage, sprays and selective weed killers are thought to be partly respon- sible for the partridge's decline. In addition, the little brown birds are likely to be more intensively hunted by predators now.
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