Battue

[page 203] In battue, whenever a hen rises, the signal "ware hen!" is called out by the sportsman or beater who is nearest it: meaning thereby "beware of the hen;" or, literally, "do not shoot the hen pheasant." In most places where game is very strictly preserved, and the rules of sporting firmly adhered to, a fine is imposed on any one who kills a hen pheasant in battue. […] [page 204] No dogs need be used in battue, but beaters only: and it should be remembered that pheasants always run to the end or side of the cover before taking flight, unless they are much pressed: consequently the best sport always comes at the extreme end of the wood.

In the southern territories of Tuva saiga antelopes were hunted successfully by the battue method, using horse as chasers, and log pens constructed before the hunt. Several dozen animals could be caught in one hunt by this method.

The spread of battue hunting was limited before the 1840s, and most sporting handbooks continued to instruct their readers in the arts of walking up rather than battue hunting. […] Yet the gradual spread of the battue was unmistakable, much to the consternation of more traditionally minded sportsmen. Traditionalists took exception to the extensive slaughter that the grand battue hunt might involve and railed against the introduction of this 'abominable Gallic System'.

The battues have nothing whatever to do with the poaching, and once sufficiently grand battue would put an end to poaching altogether, by destroying all the game. The evil of which the chancellor should have spoken, is the excessive game preserving which allows of battues, or great massacres. The game is preserved till it swarms, and then it is slaughtered in swarms; but it is clearly not the massacre which provokes the poaching, but the temptation of the extraordinary abundance of game.

What, in your comprehension, is a battue?—As far as I understand a battue, it is where the woods are beaten; where the game is beaten out by men instead of dogs.

In the collection of game for a battue, are the Committee to understand that game is driven into the covers from the various parts of the manor?—No; it is reared and bred in the covers, generally, I believe. […] You object to a battue where 800 or 900 head of game are killed?—Yes. […] I should prefer the battue system being done away entirely.

[T]he Duke having duly conned over the eligible parties to ask, it was finally arranged that a Battue should inaugurate the Prince's visit. It required a little tact and consideration to get it up properly, for some people like battues while others don't.

A battue is a contrivance for killing the largest quantity of game in the smallest time, with the least amount of trouble, by a small select party. […] The peculiar charm of a battue appears to lie, first, in its enormous cost, which places it out of the reach of men of moderate means; next, in the arrangements for wholesale slaughter by people who, being neither good shots nor good walkers, are unable to take advantage of the working of well-trained dogs.