Idioms and Phrases from Field Sports by Ajay Singha-Raconteur Indica

Shikar, hunting or field sports bore the seal of imperial approval during the days of the British Raj in India, and thus found a large following amongst the Indian elite, which continued for some decades after independence. In the 1960’s I often accompanied my parents on field excursions, which included small game hunting, angling and of course day long picnics. Very often we found ourselves in situations which could be aptly described and fitted perfectly into one or the other phrases emanating from such excursions. My parents who shared a common interest in reading would go to great lengths in explaining the correlation between certain situations or incidents and some of the oft-used terms in English. There are several idioms, phrases and terms which owe their origin to hunting and angling.

Research on the internet yields little information on how these phrases found their way into common parlance. Ignorance and a lack of curiosity amongst people led me to write and relate my own experiences with some of these hallowed terms. A few have also been taken from hunting with the horse and hound, a sport of the British nobility, introduced also in Ooty in south India and Delhi in the late nineteenth century but remaining restricted to military circles.

Returning home alongside my father from a field excursion once, he explained the origins of the term “mixed bag”. We had a somewhat meagre bag of one duck, two sand grouse and two partridges, all stuffed inside a single bag. As three different types of game birds tumbled out of one game bag, the meaning of the term became apparent. Their limited numbers which could not justify that each species be cooked separately, led to another term, “pot luck”. When the mixed dish was served at dinner, a visiting aunt from Bombay complimented the well cooked red meat of the duck, an uncle from Calcutta praised the white meat of the partridge while my father commented that the sand grouse was still undercooked. It was each one’s luck which meat landed on their plate and the significance of “pot luck” thus became obvious. When out shooting small game in the field we often came across a situation where a single partridge presented a fair target but simultaneously two partridges were spotted lurking behind some bushes. Should one fire at the bird which was “in range” or pursue the two in the bush? The classic dilemma becomes clear from the aphorism “a bird in hand is worth two in the bush”

At the end of a shoot the numbers of birds which were successfully “retrieved” with the help of dogs or otherwise would be counted. The “bag” of the day signified the final number of birds which were put in a bag for taking home. Some had got lost in the thickets and had consequently been declared “irretrievable”. Currently the term “bagged” is used to denote that a contract or a business has been successfully negotiated and is firmly in hand. "Irretrievable", a commonly used term requires no further explanation. When stealthily approaching a water body one came across some sitting ducks and a youngster with little experience of shooting flying birds was allowed to take a “pot shot” at the “sitting ducks”. Considered most unsportsmanlike, the pot shot at sitting ducks now means an easy and non-challenging target which could be achieved with limited efforts. Incidentally the unsportsmanlike pot shot here means that the shot was made to ensure that at least some game birds were made available for the dinner pot. In European and mainly British sporting etiquette, which we follow, it was considered most “unsportsmanlike” to fire a gun at a sitting bird. The bird must be in full flight, at a safe angle before being being engaged by a gentleman shooter. The term “sportsmanlike” now signifies giving the opponent a fair chance and not to engage in any unfair practices when in competition.

Only table or game birds are considered “fair game” by a sportsperson. Similarly in angling only fish and not every swimming creature could be eaten. In a rare instance, when a creature which could not be eaten was felled, it was termed as “neither fish nor fowl” and hence discarded forthwith. The term is used to describe outliers or something which cannot be put into a recognisable category. While shooting grouse or teals, a flock of birds would fly past and on rare occasions two or more birds might be dropped with only a single shot being fired. Before the onset of gunpowder, sling shots were used to bag game birds and on a rare occasion the hunter could “kill two birds with one stone”. The term is now used to claim that two different goals have been successfully achieved while expending a singular effort. When shooting a flying or a running target the shooter must follow through, surpass and lead the target in order to hit it successfully. If you were to aim and fire directly at a flying partridge or duck you would miss it as your shot would be way behind, the bird having traversed ahead during the one or two seconds it takes to aim and pull the trigger. In modern management, the term “give it a good lead” advises you to give sufficient time and do some advance preparation before “setting your sights” on an important goal.

Wild goose shooting was a difficult proposition and required considerable planning and strategy to ensure a good bag. Most often hunters wasted a full day without coming anywhere close to their quarry and hence the term “wild goose chase” was coined. Today it is often used to describe useless time wasting exercises which do not yield any tangible results and the person returns “empty handed”. Another closely related phrase “hunt where the ducks are” signifies that one should go hunting only on such lakes and ponds which are reputed to have ducks in them. Presently used in business management to notify areas and market segments which have a recognizable customer base for products and services being offered. Sporting game shooting is always done by natural light, with fading light in the evening, the day would be bought to a close by senior shooters announcing “let’s call it a day” signalling that guns and ammunition would be sheathed for the day and it was perhaps time for a “sundowner”. In some European countries, a bugle is sounded after which no shot is allowed to be fired. The term is now used to bring the day’s business to a close. The day may not be over but the critical business and trading activity stands closed for the day.

When stalking deer in the Nilgiris, or up north in the Kumaon hills, a hunter had to walk through rough terrain before sighting a target, possibly at a distance of a few hundred yards. The hunter had to gather his wits and aim for “a long shot” with a rifle. But before that he was well advised to “adjust his sights” and perhaps “set his sights high” or just “aim higher”. The hunter would invariably “miss the target” if he did not take into account the gravitational pull on the rifle bullet and had to therefore accurately calculate the “planned trajectory” of the rifle bullet. If the hunter hit the target “spot on” then he would be “dead on target” or “right on target”. He could miss the target by “a wide margin” in which case it would be declared “a clean miss”. In such an eventuality the deer all around would “get spooked” by the loud gunshot and and he would return home “empty handed”. Over whisky soda in the evening, other hunters would ask “did you give it your best shot?” to which the crestfallen hunter would quite likely reply that he did, but “missed it narrowly” or only “by a hair’s breadth.”

As natural light fades a hunter might see a deer slinking behind a bush and take an ill advised “shot in the dark” which meant that he could not see the target clearly but knew roughly where it was likely to be. This term is commonly used to denote action taken on the spur of the moment with no reference to the circumstances and without confirming the full facts of a case. Big and small game shooting as part of field sports is well regulated in most continents and the dates when licenses are given out are referred to as “open season” as opposed to the “closed season” when mating and breeding takes place and hunting is prohibited.

The above examples have been personally experienced by me during outings of which I was a part when hunting and shikar were legally permitted in India. Once my uncle had reserved a forest shooting block somewhere in the UP hills and invited us for Christmas. We spent a most enjoyable two weeks and stayed in an old colonial style cottage without electricity but with a nice fireplace included. Evenings were spent listening to shikar stories and on one such occasion I found myself giving an account of how my uncle had missed by a "hair's breadth" a huge wild boar which had crossed us during a beat. The aphorism “you should have seen the one that got away” fitted this incident because the one which was bagged by my father on the same day was comparatively smaller than the one which got away! Apparently this term is borrowed from Mahaseer anglers who often boast of the huge fish that had somehow gotten away. Specially trained dogs are often used to disturb the hares out of the bush thickets and get them out in open fields to be hunted. If two hares run in different directions the hunter and the hounds must choose to pursue one of the two as “chasing two hares” would be an impossibility. The term “run with the hare and hunt with the hounds” explains a common dilemma of having to choose between two, perhaps diametrically opposed options. The futility of trying to support both sides in an ongoing argument is well explained by this phrase.

The following terms have never been personally experienced by me as they relate to fox hunting with horses and hounds in Great Britain. Being a horse back rider in my younger days, I can appreciate the difficult and perilous sport of pig sticking, a preferred sport of fine horsemen in most of northern and central Indian provinces. Many an accident are on record during pig sticking excursions and having myself fallen off horseback a few times during country hacks, I can well imagine the excitement of the chase and pig sticking in the days gone by. By the time I came of age pig sticking in India had ceased to exist.

Hounds were extensively used alongside horses for fox hunting in Great Britain. When a fox was sighted the chase on horse-back would not commence until the bugle was sounded and till such time the huntsmen were advised to “hold their horses”. This term is now used to convey patience and strategic hold amongst the eager youngsters who are often impatient while pursuing business and are “raring to go” like the horses in a hunt. “Unleash the hounds” and put them “on the scent” also emanate from this activity which requires the hounds to immediately set out on the scent of the fox, at the commencement of the hunt. These terms nowadays imply aggressive sales follow up and sustained marketing, though the term “hounded” has other connotations for the media as well.

The overpowering scent of a “red herring” was mischievously used to confuse the hounds setting them off in circles, resulting in losing the scent of the fox. This term now refers to a piece of information which deliberately misleads and draws away one’s attention from important aspects of a case or the right direction. A situation might force the management or an ongoing investigating officer to “call off the dogs” implying that that the “scent has become cold” and it is advisable to stop pursuing the quarry. This leads to another rarely used term “this dog won’t hunt” used when the hounds for some reason become disinterested in the chase and lack any enthusiasm to continue the hunt. In present times it signifies that an executive on the job is tired or fed up and will no longer pursue the work assigned to him.

Fox hunting was taken up ostensibly to keep the theft of poultry and livestock in check by the increasing number of foxes in the English countryside, and in order to describe a paradoxical situation the phrase “fox guarding the hen-house” was coined. The term conveys that a person with vested business interests should not be given the task of looking after crucial assets. Fox hunting is no longer permitted in its original form in the United Kingdom since it had become a symbol of upper class snobbery and a way of life which was best buried with the end of the empire.

Field sports involving the gun, horses and hounds are vastly different from and should never be confused with wildlife depletion for human sustenance and poaching etc. Intertwined with the feudal order, and the days of imperialism, field sports and related hobbies dominated the lives of the world’s social elite for nearly two centuries. The dawn of the twentieth century witnessed social and political upheavals, dramatically changing the world order and shifting the centre stage from Great Britain to the United States of America. The social egalitarianism which followed impacted the field sports as well, and consequently the terms and phrases associated with it. Hunting and angling continue but without the social trappings linking it with the social elite and political or economic power. The use of the idioms, terms, aphorisms and phrases discussed in this article are showing increasing signs of redundancy. Contemporary writers prefer terms with more recent and non-controversial parentage, to which readers can easily relate. Nevertheless, I felt that before all these terms get completely obliterated from the English language, a brief write up on the subject was in order.