EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN 173 



roosting and nesting places; their food is also 

 more abundant and easily found; their small size, 

 which renders them inconspicuous, gives them 

 safety; and, finally, they are very much more 

 adaptive than large birds. 



It is not at all probable that the red-legged 

 partridge will ever drive out our own bird, a 

 contingency which some have feared. That would 

 be a misfortune, for we do not wish to change 

 one bird for another, or to lose any species we 

 now possess, but to have a greater variety. We 

 are better off with two partridges than we were 

 with one, even if the invader does not afford such 

 good sport nor such delicate eating. They exist 

 side by side, and compete with each other; but 

 such competition is not necessarily destructive to 

 either. On the contrary, it acts and re-acts 

 healthily and to the improvement of both. It is 

 a fact that in small islands, very far removed 

 from the mainland, where the animals have been 

 exempt from all foreign competition — that is, 

 from the competition of casual colonists — when 

 it does come it proves, in many cases, fatal to 

 them. Fortunately, this country's large size and 

 nearness to the mainland has prevented any such 



