Up to the present Pitherby has never hit a partridge in anger, but this year he has commissioned me to rent him a deer forest.

Some pedigree Herefords for his 'home farm' was another commission, and a dozen and a half swans for a swannery.

The swannery, I may say, was my idea; I said once in his hearing that it gave a baronial air to an estate; you see I knew a man who had got a lot of surplus swan stock for sale.

Now Pitherby wants a heronry as well.

I've put him in communication with a client of mine who suffers from superfluous herons, but of course I can't guarantee that the birds' nesting arrangements will fall in with his territorial requirement.