battues

Noun

battue (countable and uncountable, plural battues)

1. (attributive, often, uncountable) A form of hunting in which game is forced into the open by the beating of sticks on bushes, etc.
   • [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...1863, “Marksman” [pseudonym], “Finishing Lessons”, in The Dead Shot; or, Sportsman’s Complete Guide: […], New York, N.Y.: W. A. Townsend, publisher, →OCLC, pages 203 and 204
2. (countable) A hunt performed in this manner.
   • 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...1827 May 1, “Diary for the Month of April”, in The London Magazine, volume VIII (New Series), London: Published by Hunt and Clarke, […], →OCLC, page 66