xx. GROUSE SHOOTING {PART F), l DRIVING* 335 



forced back to the ground they were previously driven 

 from in one flight. 



If grouse alight two or three times in an upwind 

 drive, as they will do if it is a long one, the last time 

 they pitch may be within full view of the shelters ; 

 and rather than rise and fly past these, the birds will 

 turn back over the drivers or flankers, as being a less 

 alarming procedure than facing the guns to their 

 immediate front. 



If the drivers were ten feet high with flags like 

 royal standards, they could not send the grouse 

 forward against the wind when they have settled just 

 in front of the shooters and taken a leisurely inspection 

 of them as well. 



Recollect, in grouse driving (as in partridge 

 driving) thai: -unless the birds can be driven to the 

 guns with a fair wind, there will always be a weak 

 point or side in every drive ; and it is this weak 

 point or side that the flankers and pointsmen are 

 intended to guard (fig. 66). The one weak part of 

 a drive that it is impossible to protect, is where the 

 grouse, to escape from the drivers or guns, can fly 

 downhill and down wind. At such a spot as this, they 

 are sure to break away if they rise or fly near it, and 

 fifty flankers would not stop them from doing so ; 

 they might as well wave their flags at skyrockets. 



The only alternative is for three or four men to 



