ON SHOOTING. 161 



There are one or two words of advice I would like to 

 give before leaving the subject of grouse-driving, though, 

 mutatis mutandis, they are applicable to other forms of 

 shooting in company. Driving to butts or to a wall ought 

 to be, humanly speaking, accident-proof. (A ricochet off 

 a concealed stone is perhaps the only excusable risk, if 

 indeed any risk involving the loss of an eye or other such 

 injury can ever be excused.) That it is not always so is due 

 in nine cases out of ten to indecision, i.e., dwelling on 

 the object. 



In the earliest dawn of grouse- driving the butts were 

 placed at wide intervals— even 70 yards apart — with the hazy 

 idea that such an arrangement minimised the risk of ''the 

 gentlemen shooting each other." The result was, in theory 

 at any rate, just the reverse : a bird passing half-way between 

 was only within certain killing distance when actually in line. 

 Now, however, the distance on well-managed moors varies 

 from 20 yards (in exceptional cases only) to about 40 yards, 

 and thus one's neighbour on either hand is so readily visible 

 that the shooter who fires down the line of butts ought to be 

 prohibited from occupying any one of them. In the case of 

 " sunk butts," the most deadly arrangement, if there is not 

 a post to show you the line at a glance, put a mark, e.g., a 

 stick, or a couple of peats where you can see them readily. 



The jealous shot has been mentioned as one of the evils 

 we sometimes encounter — one of the flies in the ointment. 

 But the jealous picker-up is comparatively common and 

 can be most objectionable. You will easily recognise him, 

 starting on a cruise the instant that the drive is over, round, 

 or beyond his proper limits, gathering all birds doubtfully 

 his own plus any others he can, intent only on getting his 

 own number, exasperating his neighbours, and putting 

 them wrong in their count ; unless, indeed, they take the 

 opportunity of scavenging quite close to the offender's butt, 

 a region which jealousy prompts him to explore last of all. 

 When such a person is attended by a loader and dog infected 

 with the same moral obliquity, the annoyance caused is 

 often marvellous, when one remembers that we are by way of 

 shooting for pleasure. Things go harmoniously as a rule 

 when individual scores are not made too much of, the converse 



M 



