xxi. GKOUSE SHOOTING (PART VI\ 'DRIVING' 341 



rather the effect of a natural gift of a brain, hand, 

 and eye that work with precision and in unison, than 

 the outcome of any amount of practice on his part. 



It is true that against a strong wind driven grouse 

 occasionally fly so as to give easy shots ; but this is a 

 bit of bad luck for the birds, and they suffer as a 

 result, for the shooters who are inferior marksmen 

 have in such case a fair chance of scoring. If driven 

 grouse altcays whizzed past like stones from a sling, 

 their more usual custom, they would keep well outside 

 the game bai:. 



If you can kill one grouse to two cartridges, or 

 rifty birds to a hundred pulls of a trigger, you are a 

 decidedly good shot and above the average, which is 

 nearer one in three with most shooters ; but if you can 

 drop two birds to three cartridges, or nearly 70 per 

 cent., you are a very good shot indeed, and excelled 

 by precious few men of the shooting world. 



You should, however, take all possible chances 

 that offer of killing driven grouse, and not merely 

 select for your gun the birds you are tolerably certain 

 of, for doing this is not a test of skill. 



In an upwind drive you may bag six grouse 

 to twelve shots, as the birds approach you at a 

 moderate speed ; but, perhaps, if the next drive is a 

 downwind one, you may not kill more than four birds 

 to twelve shots as they dash past, which will reduce 

 your proportion of kills considerably. 



