PARTRIDGES AND PHEASANTS.^ 153 



The brown partridge is no doubt indigenous, but the pheasant 

 certainly is not. Echard thinks it was brought into the 

 kingdom during the reign of Edward I., though perhaps 

 much earlier. Then if quail have been with us since British 

 times, the French partridge is new, and though ptarmigan 

 and grouse are as old as their strongholds the hills, the noble 

 capercailzie has been successfully restored to Scotch forest 

 from which sixty years ago he had died; out. 



When Ireland returns again within the confines of civiliza- 

 tion, her willow and spruce wastes certainly ought to be 

 stocked with blackgame, which will flourish on ground where 

 grouse would starve. In the south of England we have hun-r 

 dreds of thousands of acres of barren heath and bog myrtle, 

 upon which the few blackgame, formerly to be foiyid, are 

 nearly extinct. We are most anxious to see some bird worth 

 powder and shot occupying these wastes. "I have been long 

 anxious to see the introduction attempted of the Scandinavian 

 species," says a correspondent. "From what I hear, not 

 having visited Norway myself, I believe that with a little co- 

 operation there might be a fair chance of acclimatizing these 

 species of grouse in Hants and Dorset if attempted simul- 

 taneously on the crown lands and by some of the chief landed 

 proprietors." Knowing Norway myself fairly well, I should 

 doubt if any species, accustomed there to its luxuriant 

 pastures and great feeding ranges, would settle down in 

 necessarily circumscribed English barrens, though the ex- 

 periment might conveniently be tried. 



American prairie grouse for our wild pastures have been 

 much talked of without practical result. Mr. G. H. Bates, 

 in the Field, seems to be a strong partisan of this species. 



"PRAIRIE CHICKENS FOR ENGLAND. 

 " SIR, 



" Yesterday a friend and myself trapped, alive, 

 twenty lone prairie chickens. I have just eaten a hearty 



