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Durh. p. 91), it is plentiful, but the stock is liable to great fluctuation in accordance with the state 

 of the weather: in 1870 and 1871 the supply was unusually abundant; but in 1872 there was a 

 great decrease in the number, apparently owing to the large rainfall of that year. 



In Scotland, Mr. Eobert Gray writes (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 241), it is " plentiful throughout 

 all the cultivated tracts, extending from the Mull of Galloway — where several broods are found 

 annually on a patch of enclosed ground belonging to the Lighthouse Commissioners, and over- 

 looking the highest cliffs — to Cape Wrath. On the mainland it seems to have followed naturally 

 upon the reclamation of waste land and the introduction of husbandry ; but it does not appear 

 to have ventured beyond the circle of the Inner Hebrides, where it is probably confined to three 

 islands, viz. Islay, Mull, and Skye." According to Messrs. Baikie and Heddle it has of late years 

 been successfully introduced into the islands of Bousay and Shapinshay, in Orkney. 



It is found in Ireland, as in England and Scotland, chiefly on cultivated soil, but only in 

 moderate numbers ; and Thompson states that it has never prevailed to the extent that it has in 

 many parts of England and Scotland. 



Neither in Greenland nor Iceland, nor yet in the Faeroes does the Partridge ever appear to 

 have occurred ; but it is tolerably common in some parts of Scandinavia. Mr. Eobert Collett 

 informs me that it is said to have first migrated to Norway in 1744 from Bohuslan, in Sweden ; 

 but though this is the first recorded occurrence, it is very possible that some arrived from there 

 long previously to that. In that year (1744) a covey penetrated as far as Christiania ; and within 

 the next year or two these birds penetrated further ; but before the beginning of the next century 

 they appeared to have vanished. About 1811 another migration took place in about the same 

 district; and they then spread over a large portion of Southern Norway. As a rule, however, the 

 Partridge is only found in small numbers in that country ; for it runs the risk of being extermi- 

 nated every winter, either by the cold or by the birds of prey, especially the Hooded Crow and 

 Goshawk, both of which commit great ravages amongst them in the winter season, the Goshawk 

 remaining near a covey until it has killed every bird. 



In his Notes on the Ornithology of Norway, Mr. Collett says : — " This species, which in 

 the autumn of 1862 was even abundant in the lower south-eastern districts, disappeared almost 

 entirely the ensuing winter, and has since then occurred in small numbers only here and there in 

 the south-eastern lowlands. In some localities, Fredrikshald for instance, the general opinion is 

 that Astur palnmlarius destroys more birds of this species than are killed off by the winter cold, 

 their numbers being kept up only by immigration from Bohuslan. Attempts to acclimatize this 

 bird have been made in the neighbourhood of Stavanger and Trondhjem, to which localities the 

 species can hardly have penetrated of itself. Near the latter town thirty brace were turned out 

 into the fields (I believe in 1860), and at first appeared to thrive pretty well. In the autumn of 

 1862 individuals were observed as far north as Levanger, near which town a large covey, flying 

 in a northerly direction, was seen on the 15th November. Although their numbers must have 

 been thinned very considerably by the rigorous winter of 1862, some appear to have survived, 

 coveys having been observed in 1865 and 1866 in Indherred (64°), in 1867 in Borsen, in 1872 in 

 Orkedalen and Stod, districts situated on the northern and southern shores of the fjord. Seven 

 individuals, procured from Spain, were turned out in the neighbourhood of Stavanger in 1862. 

 The following year a brace was observed ; but nothing more has been seen of them. On the 



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