338 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER xx. 



Driving grouse is just the same in principle as 

 driving partridges ; you should first drive as many 

 birds as possible downwind from their favourite 

 ground, so as to have them in your power and 

 collected together for a killing return drive, whether 

 back over the same range of shelters or over another 

 range not far distant ; for, if properly driven, grouse 

 will always be ready to fly over the shooters to reach 

 the part of the moor they have been driven from, if 

 this is one they naturally resort to. This is par- 

 ticularly the case if you contrive in the afternoon to 

 drive birds away from their feeding grounds, as they 

 will then return over the guns to the young heather 

 against a strong wind without much trouble in the 

 matter of driving ; and we all know it is when driven 

 grouse are flying upwind they drop oftenest to the 

 guns, as under these conditions they not only fly with 

 less speed, but in smaller numbers at a time. 



As in partridge driving, so in grouse driving ; it 

 is a desultory popping all along the line of guns, 

 as the birds return independently against the wind, 

 that shows a bag is being made, and not the simul- 

 taneous volley with which the big pack is saluted as 

 it flashes past on a favouring breeze. 



