Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-05
THE PHEASANT PHASE
Of English Country Life Is a Most
Important Feature.
HUNTING AS 1T Is DONE THERE.
The Birds Carefully Reared for Great Day
of slaughter.
PoACHERs INTERRUPT THE INDUSTRY

BANBURY, ENGLAND. July 25.-From
any point of consideration the English
pheasant is the most splendid bird that
reaches the English market
Somebody, perhaps an Irishman, has
called it :he 'the sacred Ibis of Great
Britain 1t is certainly all but worshIped.
The idolatry is an expensive one; for it
surely costs England, Ireland and Scotland
more than e1, ,OOO, 900 to rear, to shoot and
10 finally eat such pheasants as annually
come to the gun.
If the vast area of valuable inclosed land
comprised in gentlemen's seats and parked
demesnes of the nobility, which are almost
solely devoted to runs and coverts 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 British sportsmen com-
bined.
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 worry
of keepers and prey OF poachers in its oc-
cupyIng greater attention from titled sports
men than do all other game birds of Britain,
ard, above all, from its superb and match
less place among the delicacies OF the table.
Every one has heard how Sidney Smith,
and he was no mean epicure, asserted that
he knew of no purely earthly Joy equal to
roast pheasant with rich gravy, Clipped
potatoes and bread sauce. For an Ameri-
cans understanding, it may truly be said
that the pheasant is our turkey, partridge
and quail in one ample and delicious frame.
The Cost of the Fad.
The limitations of shooting in Great
Britain undoubtedly add much from the
sportsman standpoint to the deep British
interest at all times in these splendid birds.
1t is almost inconceivable to an American
how universally the ''sportman" craze pre-
walls in England, Ireland and Scotland, and
how every acre of land and rod of shore,
outside of and distinct from all other uses
to which it may be put, is sportman's prop
erty, yielding extraordinary returns in
rentals for the shooting" and fishing"
rights alone. On former occasion L DEM
onstrated that the exercise of these rights
and privileges annually cost British sports
men the enormous sum of $4,000, 900 or
So, ,000, 900 in American money.
This vast expenditure is almost wholly
CODuutu 10 W udltNcT pitdSUT6 UldN D6 got
in poking about moors. other waste though
thoroughly guarded tracts and tenant farm
ers' fields for snipe, quail and grouse,
capercailzie and deer. Pheasants, then,
while they may eventually come to the
tables of the vulgar tradesmen and literary
folk, are really the game birds of the
British aristocracy, and of the landed
aristocracy at that. They are found
only within the grounds of gentle
save where as in pheasant farms, they are
exclusively bred to increas the Numbers
upon the estates. All the conditions of
their existence in the first place, their
breeding, their increase and retention are
necessarily alone found within the walled
in parks of the country gentry and nobility.
All the sport found in their annual destruc-
tion is so absolutely exclusive that they
can only reach the common mortals' table,
at from crown to guinea brace, by
way OF the ubiquitous poacher's net or after
coming to the guns" of the rich, the titled
and the great
Every British nobleman's estate and
every English, Irish or Scottish gentleman's
country seat is in point of fact to greater
or less degree a pleasantly, and the in
crease and protection of this one game bird
are paramount to all other duties or pleas
ures. From every accessible means of in
L DtlltNG tUdI lullY
pheasants are annually slaughtered in the
United Kingdom. OF these over 100, 900
reach the London market stalls alone; and
this number represents only those which
have legitimately come from the "battues"
or shoots in October November and
early December; and do not take into ac-
count the heavy annual drafts by poachers
upon the rich and well stocked preserves
Royalty as a Pheasant Fancier.
The Prince of Wales is by no means first
among tine breeders, and vet on his estate of
Sandringham and the adjoining property of
Castle Risingham, which he has leased for
sporting purposes, as many as from 200 to
5000 pheasants are annually provided by
His Royal Highness for his sportsmen
friends In two o. three of the dukeries,
and on other large estates as well, immense
pains end expense are given to insure abun-
dant supplies of the bird of Colchis. The
killing of from 1000 to 4, 900 at one s'bat-
tue" has often been recorded, and it is well
known that 8, 800 were shot during one sea-
son at Elvedon, in Norfolk, which has an
area of Il 900 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 Marquis 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 num-
Der OF under keepers will be increased by
drawing, at certain seasons, upon the under
foresters; so that where from 2, 900 to f. 600
pheasants may be required for the autum-
nal guns of milord's sportsmen guests, with
the wives and children of the helpers who
may live in cottages within the demesne
walls, score 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 sportsmens'
guns are allowed to run wild during the
winter; care principally being taken to keep
their.runs and coverts clear of too great OBJ
structions by snow, to have their haunts
occasionally provided with drv straw or
leaves, and to keep their drinking wells or
water troughs open and clear of refuse, and
that they are we'll fed with oats and corn.
On some estates during October and No
yember 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 required egg supply
during the spring months, the scarcity of
eggs being one of the most serious draw
backs in pheasant breeding.
Electricity Brought Into Play.
Usually, however, the old birds are not
taken up" until the last of February.
Then they are systematically starved by
non-feeding for about a week, when large
figure 4" traps are set near their haunts
Then trails of oats ere scattered between.
The pheasants readily follow these to the
traps, which are sprungby strings in the
hands of the keepers, any desired number
being thus easily secured