2-889-621 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Pheasant-Shooting - drawn by Duncan, 1850. 'Pheasant shooting commences, according to law, on the 1st of October; but may, with very good results, be postponed for a while...It is a most mistaken idea, the popular notion that the pheasant is an easy bird to shoot. It is slow on the wing, certainly, and, when sprung in the "open," not very difficult to hit. But in cover, where chiefly it is to be met with, such obstacles as branches and thick foliage call for extreme quickness, amounting almost to what is called "snap shooting"...Let the shooter rise with the lark...pheasants are abroad betimes; they like to breakfast early. If he purpose taking his pleasure single-handed, his best assistant will be an old pointer, trained to obey orders to the letter, and prone to beat hard by his master's heels, poking his "intellectual" nose into every tuft big enough to hold a humming-bird'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.