254 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS 



hued garments, with perhaps a black and white check 

 you could play a game of chess on. A shooter can- 

 not be too particular on this point, and the best thing 

 for him to do is to take a partridge or a hen pheasant 

 with him to his tailor, and select a costume that 

 matches the plumage on the back of one or other of 

 these birds. 



The Drivers. On no account allow the drivers to 

 shout when sending partridges forward to the guns. 

 A constant cry of ' Mark over ! ' is both confusing to 

 the shooters and to the birds. 



The men who are driving should walk quietly 

 along and pay attention to their distances from each 

 other, and to thoroughly beating the ground, rather 

 than to the birds. 



If the drivers shout, the birds are at once put on 

 the qut-rire, and are then more ready to notice and 

 avoid the guns. If partridges are quietly walked up 

 by the drivers, they will fly forward better than if 

 ' Mark over ! ' is shouted and flags are frantically 

 waved ; then when once on wing at a good pace, and 

 if driven in a proper direction, they will not, and 

 often cannot, check their flight to escape the guns. 



The best way of warning the shooters that birds 

 are approaching them is to distribute whistles among 

 your drivers ; give one to a man in the centre of the 

 line and one to a man on each flank. These men 

 can blow their whistles as the partridges they have 



