48 SHOOTING AND SALMON FISHING 



silent. The kite-flyer should then advance slowly till he is some 

 three hundred yards in front of the shooters, when he should 

 come to a halt, leaving the kite to swing as the wind takes it. 

 If this has all been well done, then the birds on the left side of 

 the hill will not have seen or heard anything to make them put 

 their heads up till they suddenly catch sight of the mock foe, 

 when all single birds and coveys will steal quickly into cover 

 and crouch. This we have often actually witnessed by 

 crawling to the top of the hill and passing the spy-glass over 

 patches of short or burnt heather. The guns can now silently 

 cross the sky-line, and with one steady old dog the whole 

 party can advance. Suddenly a brace of birds rise at the 

 very toes of one of the shooters, and if this is his first ex- 

 perience under a kite likely enough he will miss them both, 

 for they will dash off, rising and falling, twisting and turning in 

 terror, and not till they have flown some yards do they resume 

 their natural flight ; so thus, to make a good score, it is best 

 to treat them like close rising snipe and let them get well out 

 before firing. Large packs never sit to the kite, but rise some 

 way off', when, if the man with it is well in front of the guns, and 

 working quite out of sight, often in their anxiety to escape 

 the hawk the whole of the lot will fly back directly over the 

 guns to offer splendid rocketing shots. 



No matter which way the wind blows, such a ridge as 

 we have described can be found every day on all large moors 

 having a square formation ; but, whatever the nature of the 

 ground, the great art of working a kite is to allow the birds 

 to have a good view of it some time before any chance is 

 given them of seeing or hearing the shooting party. That 

 being done, then from twenty to fifty brace a day may be 

 taken off ground which would not give five brace if walked 

 in line or shot to dogs. 



Stook shooting is the poorest form of killing grouse. 

 It is a method rarely resorted to continuously, and, more 

 often than not, it is the result of a double desire to kill 



