GAME. 319 
Duke of Rutland, who would never allow a Leicester partridge 
to be dressed for his table, since, as he said, “ partridges are 
worth nothing in a grass district.” But the same may be told 
much more emphatically about pheasants: bred between the 
maggots, and the buckwheat, these birds may run to bulk, but 
they lose in flavour, and wholesomeness of flesh. ‘‘ Per contra,” 
pheasants from the Welsh woods, and their natural succulent 
shrubberies, are unimpeachable. The merits of a well roasted 
pheasant with browned bread crumbs, and potato chips,. or 
surrounded with bitter oranges, are to be enthusiastically extolled. 
Again, a plump, young hen pheasant boiled with unbroken skin, 
and bedded on celery, whilst served with celery sauce, contain- 
ing the faintest dash of lemon, is a “dish for the gods.” “ But 
Pll have no pheasant, cock, or hen,’’ exclaims the shepherd, in 
the Winter’s Tale. According to Lemery (1674), ‘‘ the use of 
the pheasant (which is a wholesome bird) prevails against 
epilepsies and convulsions.”” French cooks make the bodies of 
pheasants into pies. whilst the plumage is profitably sold. 
Game should not be too fat, because in cooking, the oily, yellow, 
fatty tissues become rank; being less digestible than other 
animal fats, they leave a reproachful flavour for some time after 
the meal through retarded digestion. “ An old fowl, likewise,” 
says Dr. Chambers, “ has a rank taste, as of a close hen house, 
because of the absorption into its flesh of the oil furnished by 
nature to lubricate the feathers.” 
Whilst shooting at Sandringham in November, 1902, as our 
King’s favoured guest, the Kaiser killed a golden pheasant, and 
asked that it might be cooked for his own special eating. The 
Chinese are said to make a great use of pheasants’ eggs as a 
cosmetic to give their hair lustre and brilliancy. ‘‘ Describe 
the adventures of the Duke of Monmouth after the Battle of 
Sedgemoor,” was a question propounded to a class under ex- 
amination; when a brilliant youngster replied, on He changed 
his clothes with a pheasant, and was found dead in the gutter. 
A French saying (translated) runs that “ In October de English- 
man do shoot de pheasant ; in November he do shoot himself. 
Pheasants brains were among the ingredients of the dish which — 
Vitellius named the “ Shield of Minerva ” in old Roman days. 
Grouse (Lagopus Scoticus), from the Scotch moors, have flesh 
of a grey colour, with an excellent aromatic flavour; but they 
require to be drawn as soon as killed, or they would soon become 
