xvn. GROUSE SHOOTING (PART II},' OVER DOGS' 283 



To search a few hundred acres of heather slowly and 

 carefully with steady pointers is a much more success- 

 ful proceeding than to skirmish over three times the 

 extent of country with wide-ranging setters. 



For this reason hunt backwards and forwards in 

 narrow beats over a small tract of heather, and work 

 it thoroughly before you pass on to new ground, dis- 

 prr.sing what broods you flush, B,ndfoUoiving them up. 

 Three or four broods, scattered about in good cover, 

 will fill your bag more surely than will a dozen 

 that rise and fly away without any systematic 

 endeavour on your part to first disperse and then to 

 shoot them one by one, in the mistaken idea that 

 you have not time to do so, lest you lose shots at 

 birds as yet unseen ! 



In case you do not find the broods just where you 

 expect to see them, on- no account pass over any such 

 spots in future, as grouse shift their quarters accord- 

 ing to wind and sun and wet, and though you have 

 no sport on a certain stretch of heather one day, on 

 the next it may be full of birds. 



Always try to shoot the old birds first when 

 a brood is flushed ; it is one of the neatest and most 

 useful acts you can perform. "When the old pair is 

 killed, the young ones will lie well the next time they 

 alight, which will then be at a short distance ; follow 

 tin-in up, hunt one steady dog near where they 

 pitched, and you may possibly kill every bird. 



