OXFORD UNIVERSITY 
                 DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY 
 
                                                                Address:
UNIVERSITY MUSEUM 
                                      ? Sth                           OXFORD

                                             28"-,h              lefilto.,
: OXFORD 4261 
BUREAU OF ANIMAL POPULATION           Sept                      Telegrams:
MUS, OXFORD 
                                      1933 
 
 
 
 
 
 
         Dear ProfessorLeopold, 
 
                      I think Charles Elton has indicated to you the nature
of 
         the research we have just started here on game populations, but
he has 
         not told you much about it. 
 
                      I hope to go on with this work, spending most of my
time 
         on it for at least five years.   We have got a grant from the Imperial

         Chemical Industries, the amunition makers in this country, and they
at 
         the same time, are carrying out experimental work on the artificial

         propogation of game birds in captivity.   Although I am anxious
to get 
         as much work as possible done on all species of game in this country

         including grouse, partridges,pheasants, hares, rabbits, etc., I
shall be 
         concentrating mainly upon the partridge, and my general programme
is to 
         make an intensive ecological study of the partridge population,
treating 
         other game birds and mammals, somewhat as a dide line. 
 
                      I have just started reading your book on Game Management

         and I must say at once* that this looks like being my bible for
the next 
         five years; because you have already worked so thoroughly on exactly
the 
         same lines as I have in mind for this country.   Generally speaking,
I 
         think I shall find a better organisation already in existence in
this 
         country, than you had to begin with in America, because there are
so many 
         private         estates well staffed with game-keepers on which
I can 
         work, and also obtain a certain amount of statistical information
regar- 
         ding the past.   Wiithin the next few months I hope to have a fairly
ade- 
         quate record of the past fluctuation in most of the British game
birds 
         and mamIals worked out from records of kills.   I find, however,
that re- 
         cords of kills do not always reflect the population fluctuations,
espe- 
         cially where the shooting is let to different people for various
periods 
         of years; thus one party of enthusiastic shooters will shoot more
birds 
         in a bad year than the owner of the ground might shoot in a very
good year. 
         One has to know the inside history of the estates before relying
on their 
         records of kills as a population index. 
 
 
In working up the necessary organisition for this work, I