Men have a propensity to set up brotherhoods and various orders in countries around the world. Banquets and processions, notes a French magazine, are the most spectacular manifestations of this spirit in their country. Mind you, there are only 10 such attached to hunting, La chasse, but that, the article explains, is because they get no financial aid from anyone - unlike gastronomic brotherhoods which are often sponsored by food or wine companies. And yet the hunting brotherhoods appear in luxurious garments and, of course, pay for their elaborate dinners. To look at photographs of some of these brotherhoods, you might think the line of gentlemen were posing in their regalia for their picture after having had bestowed on them honorary doctorates from a university. There is a brotherhood of the ortolan, a small bunting, the shooting of which is now forbidden. Instead of the ortolan, and in memory of great gastronomic days, the members now concentrate on the skylark. Their long robes are deep green, with a golden braid. They wear a white cape and a green beret.
Then there are the devotees of the ring-dove, of the still-legal netting of them and their local gastronomic treatment. These brethren wear a robe and a cape of pigeon blue-grey with the beret of the region. There are large medallions suspended around the neck and sitting splendidly on the chest. One brotherhood, in addition to fine flowing robes, has headgear not unlike a flying bird. There are requests in the article for news from other brotherhoods. The chief picture is striking: around a table set with food and wine there are half a dozen of the diners, their heads covered with their napkins. This is a memory of the method of eating the ortolan. With the ortolan, this was done to keep all the goodness of the bird untouched by any other odours. For it was roasted (minus head, feathers and claws, no doubt), not gutted, or boned and all was consumed. Almost inhaled, you'd say. Now it's a skylark, they eat in this fashion. Might be a bit bonier than the ortolan.
The article gives a history of brotherhoods or confraternities, admitting that most are religious and charitable in origin. And as to hunting, they know only one devoted to animals like deer or boar. Many, if not most, are in the south-west of the country - "a region much attached to conviviality and its hunting traditions." Ceremonial robes and ceremonial meals together are the high point.