THE PTARMIGAN. 153 



Though the long continuance of severe winter weather 

 as well as its concomitant scarcity of food must be very 

 trying to the Prairie-hen, they survive even the most 

 inclement seasons; and this hardiness has led to the 

 belief that their acclimatization in this country would 

 be comparatively easy, their stationary habits and the 

 nature of their food seeming to favour the idea. But 

 the continual recurrence of the cold winds, rain, and 

 fogs, characteristic of English weather, would probably 

 be less likely to be endured with impunity than the 

 sharp frosty air with a bright sun which is the 

 normal state of the Canadian winter. There are also 

 few districts suitable to its habits, for as the Prairie- 

 hen always avoids high grounds and hilly tracts, 

 and is exclusively a denizen of the driest plains, our 

 Scottish moors and mountains are necessarily ex- 

 cluded. 



Supposing these difficulties overcome, the advisability 

 of turning out these birds in our country appears ques- 

 tionable, for from their pugnacious habits and superior 

 size, as compared with the red-grouse, there would be a 

 great risk of their driving off the latter; in the same way 

 that the red-legged French partridge has done the in- 

 finitely superior one of our own country wherever it has 

 been introduced. And the loss or diminution of the British 

 grouse would be but ill compensated for by the most 



