226 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



also often have an effect in causing the birds to drop 

 into cover independently instead of in coveys. 



When the guns reach the field (B), they stand in as 

 good concealment as they can find behind its fence 

 (vide small circles). 



The beaters now leave the guns, half of them 

 walking up one side of the field (B), well away in the 

 open, and half up its other side ; this will drive any 

 birds that are inclined to run out of (B) at its sides 

 back towards its centre, and, as the men walk the 

 adjacent fields, they may, perhaps, frighten any birds 

 in that have run out. 



Finally the beaters reach the boy at (c). All now 

 form line along the fence at the top end of (B), and 

 drive the field down to the guns. 



As the birds fly over the guns, though perchance 

 not many are killed, the coveys will split up and 

 scatter all over the field (A), the boy at (D) assisting 

 by his presence to check their flight. Now is the 

 time to score off these hitherto unapproachable par- 

 tridges. 



Do not stop to gather the birds you killed in the 

 drive out of (B) ; they can be picked up later on, for 

 they probably lie on the stubble or other bare field 

 between (A) and (B) , and a driven partridge is usually a 

 case of hit or miss, dropped like a stone or untouched. 

 Without a moment's loss of time hurry round to the 

 farther end of (A), half the party walking in the open 

 on one side of (A) and the other half on its other side, 



