34^ Foreign Game 



Among gallinaceous game-birds, Europe's best 

 include the capercailzie, pheasant, black-game, 

 red grouse, and the partridge. To offset these, 

 we have the turkey and the many grouse and 

 partridge described in this book. No sane man 

 would for one moment think of comparing the 

 turkey with the capercailzie, unless he wanted 

 to convince the big grouse that comparisons 

 truly are odious. The pheasant we already have 

 in abundance, while the question of our ever 

 being able to establish a useful stock of black- 

 game and partridge remains an open one. The 

 red grouse, grand fellow that he is, looks like an 

 impossibility, unless we prove able to induce the 

 heather of his beloved moors to thrive upon some 

 of our far western table-lands. That the black- 

 game, red grouse, and partridge are choice and 

 desirable birds goes without saying, but does not 

 imply them superior, or even equal to, the best 

 of our natives. So long as brave brown Bob 

 shall continue to whir from bristling stubble to 

 rustling corn, or the sheltering glory of the turn- 

 ing leaf, so long shall the British partridge have 

 an unconquerable rival. And so long as the 

 breeze-bent grasses hide the eggs of " chicken " 

 and " sharptail," so long must the quality of black- 

 game, and even the red grouse, be disputed. 



The possibility of firmly establishing the big 

 capercailzie remains for future solution — possi- 



