PHEASANT SHOOTING
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sm,—Yott published, on September 7th, an article dealing with pheasant shooting, which you, in an editorial foreword, describe as particularly welcome to you on account of the near approach of October 1st. Really, Sir, you surprise me ! Pro- bably for each pheasant killed in October five hundred are killed later in the season, when their plumage is fully deve- loped and their power of flight increased.
Shooting men to-day are far more particular as to how the birds fly than ever they were, and also far more particular that they should be properly killed. Nobody with any pre- tensions to be called a sportsman derives the smallest satis- faction in a shot at a pheasant unless that bird is killed dead in the air. If you will send a representative to any first-class pheasant shoot this autumn you will find that the host's one object is to show his pheasants as high flying as he can, to select as his guns those who can kill them cleanly in the air, and to have an adequate force of keepers and dogs behind the guns to collect and kill as speedily as possible any that should unfortunately fall wounded. The article which you publish is of the same class as those which used to be written on about August 11th, saying :
" To-morrow the crack of the rifle will be heard on the moors," and lamenting that " degenerate sportsmen nowadays instead of pursuing the grouse with dogs as their more virile ancestors did, now recline in butts and only rouse themselves when the birds are driven over them." We adopt that method here, and in our degeneracy climb up and down at least 1,500 feet twice a day.
To return again to our pheasants. There is really no truth in the article which you have published as regards pheasant shooting in general. There may be syndicate shoots conducted
on its lines ; personally, I have never seen or heard of one, nor have I ever met out shooting any person capable of saying as did your correspondent's friend : " I am glad we do not have to finish the birds off." If there is any delay at all in killing a bird, unluckily not killed dead in the air, in my experience, the nearest gun deals promptly with the keeper whose dog
Previous page
