238 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



partridge driving would be to post the shooters in 

 line behind the fence on one side of the road (A B) , and 

 then to drive the birds over the guns from Beat I. to 

 Beat II. or the reverse. 



If this experiment is tried, the birds will refuse to 

 cross the road ; as, on realising the shooters are before 

 them, they will either return over the heads of the 

 drivers to the ground they belong to, or else outflank 

 the guns and wheel back to fields that lie near the 

 land they have just been driven from, and to which 

 they eventually intend to return. 



The way to show sport here is to take one beat at 

 a time. No. I. first we will say. First disturb the 

 partridges off the open ground and out of the small 

 patches of cover, so that they may fly into the two 

 large fields of roots (c, D) on that beat ; next post the 

 shooters behind a hedge between these two fields, and 

 drive the birds from the one field over the guns to the 

 other, and then back again for a return drive. 



After (c) and (D) have been driven a couple of times 

 to and fro, many of the birds will have scattered into 

 the stubbles, grasses, and even hedges. The next 

 move is for the drivers to walk the open ground 

 once more towards the two fields of cover (c, D), which 

 can then be re-driven to the shooters, for the birds 

 that will have returned thereto. 



When Beat I. has been thus thoroughly worked, you 

 may direct your attention to Beat II., and treat it in a 

 similar fashion by sending its partridges off the open 



