A beautiful bird and a magnificent trophy.
The doggerel "Up gets a guinea, bang goes a penny-halfpenny, and down comes a half a crown" reflects the expensive sport of nineteenth century driven shoots in Britain, when pheasants were often shot for sport rather than as food.  However, Pheasant is making somewhat of a comeback in modern cooking and if anything else, their feathers make for great flying.

It was a royal pastime in the UK to shoot Pheasants. Avery popular one at that. King George V shot over a thousand pheasants out of a total bag of 3937 over a six day period in December 1913, a total which still stands as the British record bag.

Pheasants are gregarious birds and outside the breeding season form loose flocks. Wherever they are hunted they are always timid once they associate humans with danger, and will quickly retreat for safety after hearing the arrival of hunting parties in the area.