Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Great Eastern line. The birds are popular also with the East Anglians settled in London, who give their friends red-legged partridges for dinner as a kind of local souvenir, just as a Yorkshireman in London likes to see grouse on his table.

The only foreign game-birds which arrive here alive are the quails. They reach us in the early spring, just when every other kind of game is out of season, and young ducks and chickens either still in the shell, or extravagantly dear. So are the quails; but as the old farmer said of the curaçoa at 58. a glass, they are 'wurth it too.' The Egyptian quails come first. A month later the Italian quails arrive. Their numbers seem never to diminish, though seventeen thousand were brought to Rome in one day. Dealers collect them from Sicily, the Naples coast, and that strip of sandhills between the Pontine Marshes and the sea, stretching from Nettuno to Astura. The Italian birds all come by rail viâ Paris, in the small low cages which prevent them hurting themselves by trying to fly. As soon as they arrive they are sent to London to be fattened, unless it is intended to use them for winter fattening, when they are kept in Paris.

A nice discernment and much experience are needed to decide the exact moment at which a quail is at its fattest. They do not grow fat and remain so, like other birds, but after reaching the climax of plumpness at once begin to grow thin again, and not amount of feeding restores their condition. The quails are therefore carefully felt (like peaches) every morning, and those in prime condition, or any which show signs of 'going back,' are killed and trussed. In August the supply of freshly caught quails from every source ceases. But the birds which have been taken in the summer, but not fattened, are then brought on to the market. This trade is almost entirely in the hands of three dealers in Paris. The birds are fattened there throughout the winter, killed, packed neatly in small boxes with paper folding frills, and sent to London. Here they cannot be kept alive in winter on account of the fogs. The experiment has been tried, and the quails are found to die wholesale in the raw foggy cold of the City.

By October 12 last season the home-bred Scotch capercailzie were being sold in London. Their annual appearance in our game-shops is perhaps the best evidence that these huge grouse, the European equivalent to the turkey, are thoroughly acclimatised and part of our native game supply. These Scotch capercailzie, shot in the forests of the Southern Highlands, are very different

creatures from the touzled, half-frozen, stale, bedraggled creatures which appear among the cheap Russian and Norwegian game in February and March. Both cock and hen birds are in close, compact, and beautiful plumage. The feet of the big birds, with their neat rows of broadly welted scales, for securing a tighter grasp upon the branches, and their grey stockings of feathers, give them a sporting appearance second to that of no other game bird. Instead of looking black, as in the case of the frozen birds from abroad, these Scotch capers are covered with dark mottled grey, just as if Indian ink had been sprayed over them until the white was almost covered. Needless to say the dark green head makes the most perfect finish to this neat Scotch suiting.'

6

These British-bred capers, like the English and Scotch blackcock, are as good birds for the table as the frozen ones are worthless. A hen capercailzie eaten fresh on November 24, was, in the writer's opinion, as good as any young grey hen shot in September, with the advantage of greater size, and a skin which 'roasts’ well. The flesh is mixed, dark and white, like that of the blackcock. Cranberries are the most appropriate garnish for the 'capers.' These birds, like blackcock, are improved by larding, and the addition of gravy in a separate vessel. No form of tree ' grouse seems to have any spare juice in its body; the ruffed grouse of America which are now imported being as bad as our black-game. Young and old capercailzie are so much alike in plumage that it is difficult to distinguish them. The best test is to note the shape of the first long flight feather of the wing. In the case of capercailzie, grouse, and partridges, this is the only safe means of distinguishing a bird of the year. That in the old bird is more pointed than that in the young. If the actual contour of the two is unknown to the buyer, he can easily ascertain the difference by comparing a few of the birds in the shop. The first Norwegian black-game come into the market in the second week in November. Neither the grey hens nor blackcocks appear in good condition, the plumage being stale and crushed. On the other hand, the Canadian ruffed grouse,' which appeared last year at the beginning of December, were excellent, though, as they are no larger than a partridge, and the price is from 18. 3d. to 1s. 6d., they are not a cheap form of game. But with the exception of red grouse, which are always dear, partly because they are only found in the British Islands and the supply cannot be increased, and partly because the North absorbs a great part of the surplus birds

el before they can reach London, many game-birds are cheaper than domestic poultry. A pheasant at 28. has less bone and as much meat as a fowl at 28. 6d., and a brace of partridges at 38. cannot be considered dear. The price of wild-duck, which can generally be had for 18. 6d., compares with that of the tame bird as favourably as does that of the pheasant with the fowl. Game is not only a luxury, but a cheap one. For this we owe our thanks almost entirely to those who rear birds and maintain a costly staff of keepers, without looking too nearly to making for their game anything like the sums which their shooting costs them. This is, perhaps, too obvious, and has been repeated too often to need remark. But never until last season has the disproportion between the cost of rearing game and the price received for it been so marked, or the actual quantity of home-reared pheasants and partridges so great, as to strike even the least observant person who passes the game stores.

To the naturalist, and in some cases to the gastronomist, the wild-fowl in the London shops are even more interesting than the game. The first rush of duck, teal, and widgeon finds its way to the market at about the end of the first week in October, and from that time till December these three standard ducks' for the table form the main part of the supply. Their numbers are supplied equally by England and Holland, though it is noted. that the Dutch ducks are nearly all mallards, not more than ten in a hundred being females. In one large dealer's shop in Leadenhall Market the writer saw a mountain' of 1,500 wild-duck, teal, and widgeon, all freshly killed, which arrived from Rotterdam on the morning of November 14. Some duck come from France to London. This was shown by a curious piece of circumstantial evidence. In the inland lagoons and lakes in the Landes, near Bordeaux, ducks are regularly shot by means of decoys. Tubs are sunk in the water for the gunner to stand in, sometimes backed by a subsidiary tub to hold his water-poodle, and the decoy ducks are fastened to strings some six yards apart. The gun is carefully laid so as to shoot down the lane between the rows of decoys, and the gunner waits until enough wild birds are collected, and then lets fly. The decoy ducks are a cross between the wild mallard and white tame ducks, partly that they may be distinguished by their colour. One of these French 'decoy ducks' was included in a batch of foreign wild-fowl on sale in a game-shop in October. It had apparently been taken in a real

[ocr errors]

'decoy' with others, as its neck was broken, and it was not shot. In December the fancy ducks' and wild brent geese appear. The brent is a small black-necked goose, of quiet and elegant plumage. When plucked, it is not much larger than a tame duck. Last year they were early on the market, and a few bernicle geese, another black and white sea goose, also appeared. The usual price asked for a brent goose is 2s. 6d. ; but a little bargaining reduces him to 2s., as there is little demand for any outof-the-way fowl. Birds of the year, bred in the Arctic circle and fed later on sea-grass round our coasts, are excellent. They may be eaten within three or four days of being shot. The breast is as good as that of a wild-duck, though the legs are apt to have a slightly fishy flavour. The pochard, a red-headed duck, almost as large as a mallard, is not common, but when it can be had is better even than teal. January is the most common time for its appearance, but a large dealer can usually get a couple when needed. The shoveller duck is also a good bird for the table. They are not unfrequently seen in the shops, and though sold as widgeon' may be known by the broad scoop-like bill. Many other ducks are seen for sale at Christmas time- black duck' (scoters), sheldrakes, golden eyes, and other diving and fisheating ducks-but they should be carefully avoided. Pintail ducks-sea pheasants,' as they are called-are seldom good in this country, where they are killed on the coast. In India those shot or caught near the rice-fields are said to rank next to the mallard. Seagulls, gcosanders, and even cormorants are sold as wild-ducks' in some of the cheap shops, and there also one sees guillemots and razor-bills labelled 'rock teal.' One wonders who eats them, and whether they like them. Sea woodcock' and 'sea snipe' are regularly hawked round by costers when a frost comes. There are stints and whimbrel, and very nasty they are. The writer tried them on the recommendation of a young housekeeper, who was rather proud of her bargain, but cannot recommend them, even when figuring as 'snipe.' Taste in birds must have changed, to judge by the old lists of prices in Leadenhall. The following is from a list made in the reign of Richard III., quoted in London. The 'best' cygnet cost 4d. Herons were 18. 4d. each; egrets, 18. 6d.; rabbits, 4d. with the skin on (no 'foreigner' was to sell one in London with the skin off); mallards were 3d. each, and dunghill mallards (tame ducks), 2d. Teal were 2d. ; the best snipe, 1d. ; woodcocks, 3d.; partridges, 4d.; curlew, 6d.; pheasants, 18.; bitterns, 18. 6d.;

6

[ocr errors]

larks, 1d. for four; thrushes and finches, 1d. for twelve. The evidence of the change of taste, and of the present abundance of game once rare, is clear from this list. As regards the former, many birds were prized which no one now would eat-herons, bitterns, and egrets (possibly spoonbills). These, it will be noticed, fetched the highest prices in the market, a heron being six times as dear as a woodcock, and a bittern more than four times as much as a partridge. This was partly due to the rage for serving up at feasts pies and dishes covered with the skin of some rare or sporting' species, such as a peacock, a heron, or even an eagle. But our taste in birds as food has changed. We no longer buy finches to eat. In Holland they are sold by the thousand. Neither do we eat thrushes. At The Hague every gardener snares them for the market throughout the winter. The increase in quantity of the best game is evident from the price of the pheasant, then and now. It was then four times as costly as a wild-duck. The respective values are now usually 2s. or 28. 6d. to 18. 6d.

Wild grey geese are rarely seen for sale. Both the pink-footed and grey-lag geese are worth eating; so is the Canada goose, which lives in a half-wild state in many parks. The writer tried one last year which had been shot in company with wild grey geese, and found it rather like fat cygnet. Bernicle geese, which are distinguished from the brent by having a white line through the eye, are nearly as good as brent, though they are commonly only bought by the shopkeeper to be hung up as a 'decoration.'

It should be remembered that no wild goose should be basted with its own gravy. At Wells-on-Sea, near Holkham, the great preserve of the pink-footed goose, they are cooked with an onion inside them, which is thrown away before the bird is brought to table. The price of one of these grey geese at Wells is now only 28. 6d., though so few are killed that an order given for the birds to the local gunners might have to wait for weeks, before one was shot. Not long ago a gentleman who had a moor on the North Highland coast presented a grey-lag goose to a lady, the wife of one of his friends. Another lady, who was interested in what Abraham Hayward very properly calls the art of dining, mentioned the incident to the donor of the goose, and was also promised one as soon as it could be shot. The Scotch keeper was written to, and in a few days the lady had received her Highland goose and wrote to ask the donor to the dinner party given in 'its' and

« AnteriorContinuar »