THE PARTRIDGE AT HOME AND ABROAD 5 



weeks of severe protracted frost on the lower grounds 

 which the partridge haunts a fact which enables it 

 to maintain its footing in almost every part of the 

 country. The struggle for existence is no doubt 

 serious as it is at certain times and in special 

 localities ; but our insular stock of birds is fully equal 

 to any strain imposed upon its resources by heavy 

 falls of snow or continued spells of drought. The 

 increase or decrease of British partridges is indeed 

 affected by the dryness or humidity of the spring and 

 summer months, which have a great influence upon 

 young broods. Nor can we deny that the conditions 

 of a physical character, that closely affect game- 

 preserving, are diversified by local circumstances or by 

 circumstances altered by artificial steps. Every one 

 will admit that rearing partridges in the wet climate 

 of Skye, and on poor ground, is quite a different 

 thing from raising them on the highly-farmed lands 

 which afford the best partridge shooting in Aberdeen- 

 shire or in the vicinity of the Norfolk Broads. But 

 the partridge solves the problem of existence better, 

 on the whole, than might be expected, though we do 

 not mean that every attempt to introduce partridges 

 is likely to succeed, for such experiments have failed 

 signally, even when outward circumstances appeared 

 to be most promising. 



