i. REMAKKS ON MODERN GAME SHOOTING 5 



it increases the stock of game. Why ? Because the 

 wary old birds rise first on the approach of the drivers, 

 mich the gun first, and are killed first. 



In whatever form you do it, whether by t driving ' 

 or ' walking up,' you will certainly increase your head 

 of game by killing off the old birds, and especially the 

 old cocks. 



Now, when walking up grouse or partridges, or 

 when shooting over dogs, should the game chance to 

 lie close, it often occurs that the old birds run 

 forward and escape, and the brood of the year is 

 killed to a bird which is not what is required if it is 

 wished to increase or maintain the stock, on that 

 particular ground. 



It is worth notice that ' driven ' game is seldom 

 spoilt, as the head and neck of the bird is the portion 

 of the body that encounters the charge of shot ; but 



humane and satisfactory to drive them to the guns when it is usually 

 a matter of a ' clean kill ' or a ' clean miss ' at a killing range, and 

 not at a crippling one. As far as skill in shooting is concerned, there 

 is no comparison between killing grouse over dogs and walking them 

 up without dogs. In the former case you stalk up expecting your 

 birds, and almost imitating, in the manner of raising your feet, the 

 stealthy tread of your pointers, who, as they glance round, seem to 

 say, ' full cock, ready, fire.' In the latter case you never know when 

 a bird may rise which event, by the way, usually occurs just as you 

 rest your arms by pitching your gun to the slope on the shoulder. 

 Should a brace of old birds whirr up just then, at thirty yards' dis- 

 tunce. and they chance to be the grouse of North Wales, with perhaps 

 a gale of wind behind their tails to speed their flight, and you happen 

 to be panting up a high hill, it will do you some credit if you drop 

 them neatly rij'ht and left. 



