tlbo leopolb 
Reprinted from the Transactions of the Wisconsin Acad'emy f 
Sciences, Arts and Letters, Vol. 32, pp. 5-28. 
1940                                 .1 
SPREAD OF THE HUNGARIAN PARTRIDGE 
IN WISCONSIN 
ALDO LEoPoL 
The process of pioneering contains orderly developmental 
sequences and recurrent patterns of movement and behavior. 
This pioneering pattern, once discovered, makes possible the 
interpretation of chains of facts each hitherto standing in iso- 
lation, known but not understood. 
In human history the great exponent of this concept was 
Frederick Turner.' 
In natural history, a worldwide transplantation of animals 
into new environments is now taking place. Whether deliberate 
or accidental, success or failure, wise or unwise, each such trans- 
plantation offers a chance to observe the pioneering process in 
daily detail. 
A successful transplantation spreads like ripples from a 
cast stone. The rate of spread reflects the resistance of the en- 
vironment. Good records of the rate and manner of spread are, 
however, uncommon. 
The spread of the pheasant, for example, was confused by 
the great number of almost simultaneous plantings.2 That of 
the starling, on the other hand, took place unobscured and has 
been recorded.3 
The spread of the honey bee, like that of the starling, took 
place unobscured by plantings, but it was not recorded because 
it took place in the wilderness. European black honey bees, 
transplanted into New England in 1638,4 spread westward more 
rapidly than European settlers. By 1797 they had passed the 
Mississippi. In 1812 we find the hero of Cooper's novel "Oak 
Openings'"5 gathering wild honey on a commercial scale in south- 
ern Michigan, a region as yet devoid of settlements, and like 
the rest of the continent, devoid of native honey bees. The 
European bees had arrived long enough in advance of 1812 to 
enable the bears to develop a honey-hunting technique.