236 PHEASANTS 



XLIII 



A certain noble lord, now no more, owner of wide 



tracts of upland and lowland well stocked 

 Pheasants 



with game, bore the reputation of a fastidious 



gourmet. Note, please, that this term denotes some- 

 thing very different from gourmand, which bears a 

 significance of gluttony, whereas gourmet denotes one 

 with a fine, educated taste in solids and liquids. We 

 used to smile covertly at some of what we reckoned his 

 lordship's fads. For example, though he was at pains 

 to provide plenty of shooting for his friends, and 

 though hecatombs of pheasants fell to their guns in the 

 home coverts, he never would allow one of these hand- 

 reared birds to be served at his table ; those only which 

 were shot on the skirts of moorland or flanks of the 

 mountain possessing the flavour to please his refined 

 palate. The experience of the years of war, happily 

 numbered with the past, has sufficed to convince one 



that Lord 's judgment was just. It has been matter 



of general note that, since hand-feeding of pheasants 

 has been suspended and the birds left to pick up a 

 living in the woods and fields, not only is their flesh of 

 far superior flavour, but its texture is much more 

 delicate. No doubt this is partly owing to the wild 

 birds subsisting to a large extent on insect and other 

 forms of animal life, and it goes to confirm the opinion 



which many of us, besides Lord , had formed, 



namely, that Indian corn, the staple food of hand- 

 reared birds, renders the flesh hard and dry, and turns 

 the pearly fat into an unpalatable yellow adipose like 



