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 régime of farming, 
