xxn. GROUSE SHOOTING (PART VII\ 'DRIVING' 353 



all directions searching for the birds that fell to the 

 guns. 



Seven out of the eight guns may be as safe men 

 as could be wished, but the eighth might be a trifle 

 careless, or excitable, which is just as bad. Perhaps, 

 by ill fortune, a long-sought grouse flutters up low in 

 front of this one heedless sportsman ; bang goes his 

 gun in anxious haste, and if no one is ' touched up ' 

 out of the number of folk in the vicinity, some in 

 sight and others out of sight, it is a piece of good 

 luck, that's all. 



To the end of the world a dangerous shot is 

 always liable to be fired ; and for this reason it is far 

 wiser to put all risk of accident on one side, and for a 

 young shooter to leave his gun behind him in his 

 shelter rather than to skirmish about with it after a 

 drive, ready to fire at any chance bird that rises 

 before him. 



In grouse driving there are very few wounded to 

 be gathered, for the birds are, as a rule, killed on the 

 spot through being shot in the head and neck, or are 

 else clean missed, and therein lies the humanity, to 

 my mind, of 'driving' compared with * walking up.' 

 If any birds are slightly crippled they usually alight 

 some way off, whither you probably cannot follow 

 tliL-m without disturbing the ground belonging to 

 another drive, and these will, or should, be found by 

 the keepers later in the day. In the case of badly 

 wounded birds, it is easy enough to find them with a 



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