Pheasants

It is a good idea to have some knowledge of the behaviour of the prey.
 Pheasants can largely be regarded as flying sheep. They tend to stick in groups and do whatever their leader( an older cock pheasant) starts off doing. This is why game-keepers spend a lot of time avoiding having many older cocks surviving into their second year…
 Pheasants can be walked for amazingly long distances and then, if all goes well, trickled out steadily for the guns. When they see some trees they get up height and then glide across the valley.
The pheasants are not quick learners, possibly becauuse they are urged by the beaters to go and get shot.
The reward for the obedient pheasant is death.
 Naturally, this type of selection leaves us with the canny birds at the end of the season, the ones that never did “ right”. So they are still alive.
The keeper will curse these and call them stupid.
Actually, they are the more sensible ones and will tend to repeat their so far successful behaviour.
 The keeper outwits them by suddenly doing drives “in reverse” This is an attempt to shake the birds up and get them to fly the other way. It works quite well.
When pheasants get nervous and take off as soon as the beaters even start chatting half a mile away they are said to be JITTERY. Jittery birds are very unpredictable. Gamekeepers worry a lot about this and can get rather jittery themselves.
This mainly causes them to tell the beaters to be very quiet. Male beaters respond well to this suggestion but our correspondent has noticed that female beaters soon start chatting again. However, it is possible, that by late season, the birds are pretty used to beatressess chattering near them several times a week.
Pheasants are beautiful, really, it is just that they are nowadays so very common that one forgets how stunning they look. Some keepers put down a few white birds, or pheasants of other varieties than the ordinary. A gun who shoots one of these is frequently fined a bottle of port. Or made to pay a fine to charity. (Not the Beater’s Fund, a charitable organization we’re just contemplating starting, for injured and aged beaters)

Partridge.
Partridge come in different varieties, some, it appears have redder legs than others. Some are known as French and others as English. Our correspondent is unsure how to tell the difference between these nationalities. In general it seems that the French birds are better dressed, more chic and rather more co-operative. The English Partridges seem to leave the premises rather too soon for their standard of turn-out to be assessed. They are cursed over the radios but rarely shot.
 Partridge appear to suffer more illnesses in the rearing stage and are altogether less well suited to intensive methods. They behave more like truly wild birds. They are harder to shoot, being smaller and faster flying and have a tendency to fly off in any direction even after starting to cross the valleys. For the guns, this is obviously what adds to the excitement.For the beaters this behaviour adds mainly to the length of the working day, as the drives are longer and an extra drive often has to be added.
To eat: partridges have a much milder flavour and are rather surprisingly heavy and muscled for their small size.

Wood-cock

Woodcock are truly wild birds. They are not bred in captivity for the purpose of shooting, they just get shot anyway. A gun has told me that they are very diffficult to shoot. They are not a big bird. Beaters put woodcock up occassionally , with the pheasants, and the guns are very thrilled if they manage to shoot one. They are found only as individual birds, they are not seen in large groups like pheasant and partridge.

Pigeons are very common and are also sometimes shot. In France they are considered a delicacy, in England they are more or less regarded as vermin. Beaters are not normally required for pigeon shooting. The Pigeons shot in France during the Palombiere are the Turtle Doves. This is an entirely Male Sport, during which the Male French retire to primitive huts in the woods and live on barbecued food and shoot pidgeons. it is culturally very important in the S.W of France. it is not terribly good for the Turtle Doves, who fly through narow passes in the Pyrenees, where the French guns all lie in waiting. They also put up hides in the entire S.W. of France. We hope for aphoto of a typical Gun Hide, a surprisingly elaborate structure.

  Duck:
  Beaters sometimes have to put duck up from ponds. These are mainly Mallard, who have been reared for shooting. For some strange reason, the beaters frequently object to duck-shooting. The reasons given is that ducks are sweet. Whilst this is rather strange, it is actually very unpleasant to see the poor mallard flying back time and time again over the guns. They really are quite remarkably stupid and rather tasty to eat.However, all those that have fed ducks in the park as children seem to find it very blood-thirsty to shoot at these creatures.
It appears that guns rarely, if ever, fed ducks, as children.
Still, mallard are easily bred and they are unlikely to become extinct.There are also truly wild duck that come onto flight-ponds by themselves. These tend to be more exciting as they will only give the guns one chance, after that they leave the premises. There are several varieties of these wild ducks, apart from Mallards.

Swans:

Swans in England are the property of Her Majesty the Queen.
 It is not known if she eats them on a regular basis. It is, however, regarded as both theft and possibly Treason to shoot these large personal pets of Her Majesty’s. Therefore, this is best avoided. They are fairly easy to recognize but could be mistaken for geese after very many glasses of port.