EXOTIC BIRDS FOR BRITAIN 145 



cally it is one of our wild birds. The large caper- 

 cailzie has also been successfully introduced from 

 Norway. Small birds would probably become 

 naturalized much more readily than large ones ; 

 they are volatile, and can more quickly find suitable 

 feeding-ground, and safe roosting and nesting 

 places ; their food is also more abundant and easily 

 found ; their small size, which renders them incon- 

 spicuous, gives them safety ; and, finally, they are 

 very much more adaptive than large birds. 



It is not at all probable that the red-legged part- 

 ridge will ever drive out our own bird, a contingency 

 which some have feared. That would be a mis- 

 fortune, for we do not wish to change one bird for 

 another, or to lose any species we now possess, but 

 to have a greater variety. We are better off with two 

 partridges than we were with one, even if the invader 

 does not afford such good sport nor such delicate 

 eating. They exist side by side, and compete with 

 each other ; but such competition is not necessarily 

 destructive to either. On the contrary, it acts and 

 re-acts healthily and to the improvement of both. 

 It is a fact that in small islands, very far removed 

 from the mainland, where the animals have been 

 exempt from all foreign competition — ^that is, from 

 the competition of casual colonists — ^when it does 

 come it proves, in many cases, fatal to them. For- 

 tunately, this country's large size and nearness to the 



