98 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



of unjustifiable slaughter; but why pursue a sub- 

 ject so painful and humiliating? 



What the market-hunters left, the greedy pot- 

 hunters combed out, assisted by sportsmen who 

 believe that it is right to shoot vanishing game just 

 as long as "the law permits it!" Now, with the 

 quail and grouse on the point of total disappear- 

 ance, we come to the next stage of this very exas- 

 perating subject. 



Having stupidly and criminally permitted the 

 almost-blotting-out of our finest native game-birds, 

 by treatment brutally unfair, the next step of the 

 ^natural enemies of our wild life was the intro- 

 duction of foreign species. About fifteen states 

 have attempted to introduce the Hungarian par- 

 tridge and ring-necked pheasant for the alleged 

 reason that our quail and grouse "can't live" in their 

 own country! Very determined efforts have been 

 made to supplant the bob-white with Hungarian 

 partridges, but I am heartily glad to say that the 

 latter species has been a failure, almost everywhere 

 that it has been tried on a large scale. The very 

 latest confession of failure comes from California. 

 I sincerely hope that the European partridge never 

 will succeed in this country. If the American peo- 

 ple are willing that their own quail should be 

 exterminated through greed and folly, I sincerely 

 hope that no foreign species can be found to take 

 its place. 



If our quail and grouse are decently treated, and 



