OK, I haven’t posted here lately, but things seem to be a bit quiet in the shotgun forum of late (everyone at the cottage?), so I’ll have a go.
What we can hunt is dictated by geography and necessary, careful game laws. Sportsmen in Britain have had access to different species that we have here, and this continues to this day. There was also a time when game was more plentiful and less affected by changes in habitats than it is today. The Victorian shooter could hunt pheasants, grey partridge and red grouse, various waterfowl, snipe, and shorebirds such as plovers, curlews and whimbrels. All of these appear on Victorian guns that have game scenes.
One which you don’t see very often in engravings is the black grouse (Eurasian black grouse, black game, or blackc_o_c_k). A large bird, somewhere in size between a red grouse and a capercaillie. In Britain, it was found from North Wales to Scotland, and ‘black game’ was highly sought after, for walked-up shooting. Nowadays, the species is in significant decline across its range, and is the subject of conservation efforts. The male of the species has a characteristic curved, forked tail:
Source: Aconcagua/Wikipedia Commons
Here it is on a lock plate from a 16-bore Edward Michael Reilly pin-fire game gun from 1857. I can’t say I’ve ever encountered an engraving of a black grouse before, but I do have narrow interests!
