The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-10-05 00:00:00

The PHEASANT as a MANUFACTURED

ARTICLE.

"October, a month with which Mr. Millais, more
than anybody else, has succeeded in connecting an un-
comfortable idea, is at least entitled to plead its
pheasants on the other side. There is nothing chill
about a pheasant, even, if the contradiction may be
allowed, when he is cold. His gorgeous feathers and
his association with hot corners possibly preserve him
from chilliness. The accounts of the pheasants' pro-
spects this year are not much less depressing for him
and satisfactory for other persons than usual. There is
indeed a 'slightly artificial character about the youth
and conditions of a pheasant which excludes him
from the perils of the partridge and the grouse. He is
nearly as much a manufactured article as a pair of
boots, and one would nearly as soon think of speaking
of a year as bad or good for the one class of product as
for the other. Regarded as a manufactured article,
the pheasant is expensive but perhaps not unsatis-
factory. He is good to look at, good to shoot, and
good to eat, and if his goodness did not provoke un-
seemly disputes between his lawful and unlawful
enemies there would be little to be said against him.
He is however unluckily the chief object of the p3acher
at least of the worst variety of poacher, the town
bred ruffian who goes about in gangs. The unlicensed
country sportsman, as a rule, prefers the easily and
quietly snared hare to the pheasant, who generally re-
quires the use of the tell-tale gun. However, all
beautiful things have a prescriptive claim to be the
cause of strife. Not the least remarkable point about
the pheasant is his extreme expensiveness, and the way
in which he contradicts the theories of political econo-
mists. After to-day, or at least in a few days' time,
four or five shillings ought to buy a pheasant. Yet
many a country gentleman will tell you with a sigh
that his pheasants cost him a guinea a brace at the
very least to produce. So that the pheasant, in addi-
tion to his other excellencies, is good to meditate over."
—Daily News.

The Times of Tuesday has also an article on pheasants.
The following is an extract therefrom :
Artificial preparations 119,ve been made for an arti-
ficial sport, and so far the anticipations of pheasant
shooting are less exciting than those of days among
the grouse on the moors and the red deer in
the forests. And yet there is a keen enjoyment
of its own about it, especially in the opening
days of such a season as the present. Most
men will be likely to give their pheasants
reprieve till the autumn gales and frosts have stripped
the covers of their foliage; and no battue will be orga-
nized till you can see the objects you are shooting.
Most men who preserve look to the biggest possible
bags, and there are many men who can hardly help
themselves. Feed and breed as you will, if you make
a practice of disturbing the woods, your birds will shift
to more peaceful quarters, and your loss will be the
permanent gain of your neighbours. How far you can
afford to do so must be a matter for individual conside-
ration; but, in our opinion, there is more real excite-
ment to be had in a quiet day among the hedgerows
and outlying 'pinnies than in the longest, biggest, and
most bloody of battues. You go out with a couple
of guns, with the keeper and a second attendant, and
you will find it all the pleasanter if you do not disdain
the use of a couple of clever spaniels. The pheasant
will seldom fly if he can run, but when a party is work-
ing along the hedgerows he can hardly help himself.
A boy stands sentinel, tapping at the end; the dogs
are rustling along the hollow ways in the ditches; the
keeper and his man on opposite sides are making play
with their sticks among the branches. The dogs get
excited, and dash wildly out to plunge madly in again,
struggle their way along through thorn boughs and
bramble suckers in temporary disregard of their
sensitive skins. The scent is hot; they see or hear
something before them, and the guns are on the outlook
on either side. The pheasant must take wing at last, but
his chances are by no means so desperate as might be
imagined. He lumbers up heavily through the topmost
twigs of the hedge; possibly you are flurried and shoot
too quickly, but if you hold your hand to give him law
and take an open shot, that easy shot you may possibly
never have; for there are spreading trees scattered
about along the hedge, and the pheasant, like the
wood pigeon, has a knack of twisting craftily round
them, and after a blind snap shot through the branches
you may feel very sure that he has gone away sca,thless.
Or you may shoot behind and ' tail ' him, more to his
fright than his harm. But when you do 'grass' your bird,
nothing can be more satisfactory than the heavy thud
with which he comes down on the ground; and we
repeat that, to our mind, there is far more sport in
killing a few brace in that sportsmanlike style than in
having your share in the cart-loads of blood-bedabbled
plumage that are sent home to the gape larder after
the 'hot day in the covers. ' "