Morning journal and courier., 1892-08-06
wAKEmAN,s wANDERINGs.
Bnglish Pheasauts-Interest De-
tails Concerning tho Breeding and
Shooting OF These MatchIessly
Beautiful and Toothsome Birds
Vast Outlay for n Brief sport Upon
the Great Rnglish Estates.

To the Editoro OF the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
From any point of consideration tn.
English pheasant is the most splendid bird
that reaches the English market
Somebody, perhaps an Irishman, ha.
called 1t "the sacred Ibis of Great Brit
ain." 1t is certainly all but worshiped.
The idolatry is an expensive one; for II
surely costs England, Ireland and Scot.
land more than million pounds sterling
to rear, to shoot and to finally eat such
phessants as annually come to the gun.
If the vast areas of valuable enclosed
land comprised in gentlemen's seats and
parked demesnes of the nobility, which
are almost solely devoted to runs and CO.
verts for pheasants, should be taken into
account, and anything like fair rental
for these be added to the actual current
sums expended, the outlay upon this one
bird alone would annually reach millions
upon millions of dollars, and be found to
exceed all other forms of outlay by Brit
ish sportsmen combined.
Indeed the pheasant is an interesting
bird in all its relations to life upon the
great English estates-in its extraordinary
personal beauty; as the immemorial wor-
ry of keepers and prey of poachers; in its
occupying greater attention from titled
sportsmen than do all other game birds of
Britain; and, above all, from its superb
and matchless place among the delicscies
of the table. Every one has heard how
Sidney Smith, and he was no mean epi-
cure, asserted that he knew of no purely
earthly joy equal to roast pheasant with
rich gravy, Clipped potatoes and bread
sauce. For an Americans understanding,
it may truly bs said that the pheasant is
our turkey. partridge and quail in one
ample and delicious frame.
The limitations of shooting in Great
Britain undoubtedly add much, from the
sportsman stIndpoint, to the deep British
interest at all times in these splendid birds.
1t is almost inconceivable to an American
how universally the ''sportman" craze
prevails in England, Ireland and Scotland,
and how every acre of land and rod of
shore, outside of and distinct from all 9TH
er uses to which it may be put, is sports
mans property, yielding extraordinary re-
turns in rentals for the shooting" and
fishing" rights alone. On former occa-
sion 1 demonstrated that the exercise of
these rights and privileges annually cost
British sportsmen the enormous sum of
six million pounds or thirty million dol
lars in American money.
This vast expenditure is almost wholly
confined to whatever pleasure may be got
in poking about moors, other waste though
thoroughly guarded tracts and tenant far
mers' fields for snipe, quail and grouse,
capercailZie and deer. Pheasauts, then,
while they may eventually come to the ta-
bles of the vulgar trsdesmep and literary
folk, are really the game bird of the Brit
ish sristocrscy, and of the landed aristoc-
racy at that. They are found only within
the grounds of gentlemens' seats and lord
ly demesnes, save where ss in pheasant
farms, they are exclusively bred to in
crease the numbers upon the estates. All
the conditions of their existence in the
first place, their breeding, their increase
aud retention are necessarily alone found
within the walled-in parks of the country
gentry and nobility. And the sport found
in their annual destruction is SO absolute
ly exclusive that they can only reach the
common mortals' table, at from a crown
to guinea brace, by way of the ubiqui-
tou- poacher's net or after coming to the
guns" of the rich, the titled and the great.
Every British noblemsn's estate and ev-
cry English, Irish or Scottish gentleman's
country seat, is in point of fact to great
er or less degree phessantry, and the in
crease and protection of this one game
bird are paramount to all other duties or
pleasures. From every accessible means
of Information, believe that fully one
million pheassnts are annually slaughtered
in the United Kingdom. OF these over
one hundred thousand reach the London
market stalls alone; and this number rep
resent only those which have legitimately
come from the ''battues" or "shoots" in
October, November and early December;
and do not take into account the heavy
annual drafts by poachers upon the rich
and well stocked preserves.
Necessarily great pains are annually
taken to keep up the pheasant supplies.
There are some professional breeders.
Their establishments are distinctively
known as game farms. From these, pheas-
ants eggs, chicks and adults are often sup
piled by the hundreds and thousands to
the more aristocrstic estates; although a
noblemsn or gentleman greatly loses in
caste among aristocratic sportsman il he
is known to lack the ability of keeping his
own preserves bountifully supplied
through the proficiency and cunning of his
own gamekeeper.
The Prince of Wales is by no means
first among the breeders, and yet on his
estate of Sandringham and the adjoining
property of Castle Risinghsm, which he
has leased for sporting purposes, as many
as from seven to eight thousand pheasants
are annually provided by his royal high
ness for his sportsmen friends. In two or
three of the dukeries, and on other large
estates as well, immense pains and expense
are given to insure abundant supplies of
the bird of Colchis. The killing of from
two to four thousand birds at one "bat-
tue' has often been recorded, and it is
we'll known that ninety-five hundred were
shot during one season at Elyedon, in
Norfolk, which has an area of seventeen
thousand acres. There are other game
farms, as they are called, in other parts
of England, and there is at least one such
huge pleasantly in Scotland, on the Mar
quis of Ailsa's estate in Ayrshire.
On all estates of average area the head
gamekeeper will be allowed a half dozen
keepers to assist him in breeding and
caring for the game, and in protecting it
from inroads of poachers. Often the
number of under keepers will be in
creased by drawing, at certain seasons.
upon the under foresters; 80 that where
from two to four thousand pheasants may
be required for the autumnal guns of mi
lords sportsmen guests, with the wives
and children of the helpers who may live
in cottages within the demesne walls, q
ecore of persons will be employed in the
breeding and caring for pheasants upon
one estate alone.
Usually these birds which have escaped
both the poacher's nets and the sports
mems guns are allowed to run wild dur
ing the winter; care principally being taken
to keep their runs and coverts clear of too
great distractions by snow, to have their
hsunts occasionally provided with dry
straw or leaves, aud to keep their drinking
wells or water troughs open and clear of
refuse, and that they are well fed with oats
and corn. On some estates during Octo-
ber and November a certain number are
caught, taken to the aviary or pheasantry,
their wings regularly clipped every two
or three weeks, and they are thus kept and
fed during the winter to provide the re-
quired egg supply during the spring
months, the scarcity of eggs being one of
the most serious drawbacks in pheasant
breeding.
Usually, however, the old birds are not
"tsken up" until the last of February.
Then they are systematically starved"
by non-feeding for about week, when
large "6gure 4" traps are set near their
haunts. Then trails of oats are scattered
between. The pheasants readily follow
these to the traps, which are sprung by
strings in the hands of the keepers, any
desired number being thus easily secured.