The cult of October

The early part of the season is the perfect time for hunting along thick old-fashioned hedgerows and all you need is a dog and a gun, says WC

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So far as pheasants are concerned, this season will be the best for years. Wild birds have thrived as never before. The charms of old-fashioned October days, with the autumnal tints glorying every hedgerow, from russet to gold, and later to crimson, and a couple of eager spaniels assiduously hunting therein, is a sideshow to later sport in the covers, and must appeal to every sportsman, as well as lovers of nature.

You need not wait for the leaves to fall from the attacks of Jack Frost to enjoy sport; it is ready to hand as soon as October dawns. There still remain, for all the town building schemes, plenty of minor estates with resident sportsmen landlords who preserve the cult of opening October days. It kills off boundary birds that most probably would be lost forever and scares homeward to the central cover those wanderers from the fold that have strayed ever onwards for the acorns and berries which are so prevalent at this period.

Farmer’s friend

The pheasant is a good friend to any practical farmer. He is not perverted to a pure granivore’s diet like the sparrows and the finch tribe. The few fallen grains from ripe wheat, oats or barley are as nought to the hundredweights of grubs, caterpillars and wireworms that pheasants devour in such time when there is no corn available on the arables. The pheasant contents himself with “the fallen crumbs from the richer harvest”.