Possible Clues:

• Attendant defends right to free game
• Peculiarly apt girder for the game bird
• Bird's separate crest
• A bit of a rise will make one fly
• Showing a bit of backbone in game
• Just a bit of a rise in a Christmas tree
• Quaillike bird
• A bird to leave on hilltop
• Game bird (in a pear tree?)
• Leave free starters of goujons, and eat game bird