266 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



entirely a question of being able to walk well which 

 means working with the legs and not with the head 

 (or rather with the noses of your dogs) ; still, this 

 style of grouse shooting is the only one possible on a 

 moor that is bare of good heather for the birds to lie 

 in to dogs, and on which the broods are well grown by 

 the 12th (as in England and Wales), and at the same 

 time does not support a sufficient stock or is too hilly 

 for driving. 



The third system, or driving the grouse, is a ne- 

 cessity on moors where the birds will not lie to dogs, or 

 allow you to walk them up without, or will only do so 

 for perhaps a few daj r s after the 12th before they col- 

 lect into large packs, and thus become unapproachable. 



On the vast level stretches of moorland in Derby- 

 shire, Yorkshire, and Durham, the young grouse are 

 much stronger on the 12th than they are in Scotland, 

 hence they are wilder, and, as a rule, almost un- 

 assailable after the first week of the season, except 

 by driving. This is particularly the case on the 

 moors where ' driving ' is practised, as the grouse 

 have so increased in numbers thereon, that the alarm 

 caused among them by the sound of firing is readily 

 communicated from one bird to another, and the 

 habit of collecting and rising in large numbers at a 

 time is the result. 



An English moor, besides being often very level, 

 does not possess the peat hags, heather clumps, and 



