2Q9 



LETTER XVIII 

 GROUSE SHOOTIXG (PART III), DRIVING 



THE usual and evident reply to the query, ' "Why do 

 you drive your grouse ? ' is, ' Because I cannot kill 

 them any other way ' a very good reason too, and 

 one applicable to nine moors out of ten on which the 

 birds are driven to the shooters, instead of followed 

 with pointers and setters. 



On most of the large English moors you might as 

 well walk after the moon as pursue the grouse with 

 pointers or setters, if the birds are well grown, and 

 particularly if the ground has been driven for some 

 seasons past. 



As a good English driving moor carries a far 

 larger stock of grouse to the acre than the best 

 Scotch one, its birds can the more easily communi- 

 cate any alarm to each other ; and as, besides this, 

 an English moor seldom possesses the steep hills and 

 deep valleys of Scotland, the grouse on the former, 

 when disturbed by firing, are also always liable to 

 run together, and as a result to rise in packs. 



Neither have we in England the abundance of 



