Any of various game birds in the family Tetraonidae (order Galliformes), including the prairie chicken and ptarmigan, or the sandgrouse (order Columbiformes).
They consulted, they looked through various reference books, but couldn't find anything that answered their question, that told them what the fastest game bird in Europe was.
No, I think that the spur-winged goose's record of 88 is so thoroughly debated that they can't say for certain that it's the fastest European game bird.
I can't imagine how many times he chewed it over before it finally became the idea for a book that actually has facts like what's the fastest game bird in all of Europe.