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. 
