STOCK 461 



conscious feeling of being able to deal with the situation, and the excitement of 

 watching the big pack neatly turned by the flankers and sailing in serried 

 mass towards the very centre of the line. 



While opinions differ as to the pleasure to be derived from either method 

 of shooting, the benefits conferred by each are not hard to detail. 



The great advantage of shooting over dogs is that the worst shot should be able 

 to kill without wounding. Dogging where it is possible is an excellent method of 

 regulating the stock in a bad year. It gives an opportunity to kill all 

 the old birds and spare the young. It is possible also to "dog" carefully 

 the outskirts of a Grouse moor without doing any harm to the central beats, and 

 thus provide a means of killing the birds on those parts of a moor which are 

 least effectively driven. 



In a good year, dogging is but a verj^ imperfect method for getting on terms 

 with the stock. The mere fact that the coveys are large means that May, June, 

 and July have been dry and fine, that all the birds are from first hatchings, 

 and therefore strong on the wing, and proportionately wild. By the end of the 

 third week of the shooting season if the weather is fine, or earlier if August 

 has been wet and stormy, the birds are nearly unapproachable, and long shots- 

 and wounded birds are the chief results of a day's outing. 



A further disadvantage of shooting over dogs is that single old cocks almost 

 invariably escape. The walking powers of the parent birds of a covey are limited 

 by the pedestrian ability of their brood, whereas the solitary old bird is subject 

 to no such limitations. 



Without going into the details as to how the dogging moor should be 

 worked, certain points may be mentioned which do not always receive enough 

 attention. 



In the first place, it may be laid down as a rule — probably an unpalatable 

 one — that in a bad year, when it is desirable to shoot old birds, one gun, and one 

 gun only, should go out with each dogging party. If two guns go together the 

 object of each shooter is to kill outside birds so as not to interfere with his 

 companion's sport : if the shooter goes out alone his object is to kill the first 

 bird on the wing, in nine cases out of ten the father of the brood. 



Where dogging is the usual method of shooting the owner should work round 

 the lower fringes of the moors towards the end of the season in order to secure 

 as many as possible of the pricked or badly-feathered birds which have worked 

 their way down to the grassier and wetter ground. In settled weather the high 



