io NATURAL HISTORY OF THE PARTRIDGE 



destined to increase and multiply in the vast grain - 

 producing regions of that country, though its numbers 

 are checked, if not decimated, by scarcity of food in 

 winters of great severity. From Russia the partridge 

 extends its range into Poland and Northern Germany, 

 while to the south-east its presence can be traced to 

 the northern frontiers of Greece. Indeed, it is the 

 most plentiful of all game-birds in Bulgaria, and likewise 

 in Macedonia. We have ourselves seen it in greater 

 abundance in the Rhine provinces than in any other 

 part of the German Empire ; the most highly culti- 

 vated plains naturally supply the most favourable 

 breeding grounds for these birds. In France it is 

 less common in the south of the country than in the 

 northern and central departments. It is replaced by 

 our own partridge in most parts of Spain, but holds 

 its ground in the northern portion of the peninsula. 

 We perfectly well remember the gratification with 

 which we marked a pair of grey partridges that rose 

 from a small roadside cover, as we drove one spring 

 day through one of the wildest districts of fair Navarre, 

 little expecting to find our old favourites in an arid 

 region which seemed to present but scanty attraction 

 for a species that delights to luxuriate in English 

 meadows, full of lush, juicy grass and buttercups, and 

 teeming with a variety of minute forms of insect life. 



