356 LETTERS To YOUNG SHOOTERS LETTER 



If the wind was sideways, search on the downwind 

 side of your shelter, for there will most of the killed 

 then lie, though you may fancy they dropped nearly 

 opposite you ! 



As to marking on a slate or paper the relative 

 spots round your shelter where the birds you kill, 

 fall, this would be all very well if driven grouse came 

 singly or at regular intervals ; but they don't. They 

 come just the contrary. Imagine, for example, firing 

 a right and left barrel at a brace of grouse flying to 

 you fast with the wind, and then another brace or 

 two following these ; why, you would require eyes in the 

 back of your head to see exactly where the first brace 

 dropped, for you could not take your attention for an 

 instant from the other birds approaching, or have 

 the least chance of killing them if you turned round 

 to mark where the ones you first shot, fell ! 



In the haste of firing at a number of driven 

 grouse, a shooter cannot possibly make a note with a 

 pencil on a card between each shot, as to the locality 

 of his dead birds ; and anyone who recommends 

 such an impracticable idea can have no real know- 

 ledge of grouse driving. 



Even if very few grouse are driven to a shooter, 

 he would not personally have leisure to attend to a. 

 paper or slate, and pencil on it the position of his 

 kills, and certainly he could not allow an assistant to 



