Having spent a few very enjoyable days shooting pheasants (vermin control!) over the last few weeks I was pleased to receive as a Christmas present a book on shooting by sporting expert Mike Swan. I should say at the outset that I am not one of those sportsmen who look for a huge bag. A modest number of birds combined with the maximum amount of banter and fun in beautiful countryside ending with a pleasant meal with fellow guns is my ideal.
Perhaps because of this relaxed attitude I had not appreciated, until I opened my new book, some of the things that I should have about the main quarry I had been aiming at. Well, Mike Evans has helped to reduce my ignorance.
Pheasants represent about 70% of all the game killed in Britain each year, apparently. It is well known that they came originally from as far away as China and other countries in the Far East. What is not so clear is how they came to Britain. The Romans were known to have reared them in captivity for the table two thousand years ago but there is no proof they brought them to this country. It is more likely, according to Mike Evans, that they were brought from France by the Normans about a thousand years ago.
Certainly they were known to be roaming around Britain in the 15th century. But it was not until the 19th century that they became established as game birds, says Mike Evans. I suspect that co-incided with the introduction of driven pheasants over a line of guns that was started here in Norfolk by Thomas William Coke, later the Earl of Leicester, on his Holkham estate near Wells.
He was also the man who asked Locke's the London hatters to design a safety hat for his gamekeepers. They came up with a round and very strong design that became known as the Billy Coke hat, later the billycock hat which was the forerunner of todays bowler. Holkham gamekeepers still wear them on shoot days.
However, back to Mike Evans book, He compares pheasants to chickens because they nest on the ground and walk a lot. But pheasants are capable of explosive powered flight for about 8 seconds up to a height of 150ft as they seek to escape from cover. They plane, or glide, after that as the effort exhausts them.
Even so, some of them are still too fast for me. Which is as it should be. I try to be a sportsman not a slaughterman and long may the enjoyment of the handful shooting days in which I am privileged to participate continue. Those who insist on enormous bags are the ones most likely to put this traditional country persuit at risk.