6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



On the contrary, some attempts at the colonisa- 

 tion of partridges proved full of disappointment, the 

 strange stock becoming extinct in a very short time, 

 and leaving no trace of its existence. The same may 

 be said, however, of almost any species that we try to 

 naturalise in a strange locality. Patience and perse- 

 vering forethought often repair faults of judgment 

 and bear lasting fruit. But the partridge is to be 

 found in most parts of Britain at any rate of the 

 mainland ; nor is it absent from Ireland, small as 

 the reputation of that island may be for anything 

 but bog-trotting. The fact that this bird exists in 

 regions so diversified argues a large amount of 

 shrewdness, both in adapting its habits to its environ- 

 ment, and equally in the choice of its environment. 

 The very changes which time has wrought in the 

 appearance of any countryside have their own story 

 to tell. The destruction of old-fashioned double 

 hedges, the transformation of commons and moor- 

 lands into highly-farmed tillage, the conversion of 

 tillage into large grazing farms, changes in the crops 

 we grow, should all be taken into consideration by 

 any one who essayed to show the close relation which 

 the partridge bears to its native soil. Happily, this 

 species possesses sufficient pliancy of character to 

 become readily inured to a new regime of farming, 



