WALKING UP 161 



if one dog out of the four is any use you may be thank- 

 ful, and in case of difficulty this one and his master 

 have to be summoned, often from the opposite end 

 of the line, ,to help out the hopeless efforts of one of 

 the others. I firmly believe that one man thoroughly 

 up to his work, handling a couple of perfectly trained 

 retrievers, and with another couple in reserve for the 

 time when these are tired, would attend upon a line 

 of even six guns with more success than the divided 

 and incapable efforts one is usually dependent upon. 

 For this purpose the system advocated by Payne- 

 Gallwey, in his ' Letters to Young Shooters,' of giving 

 the beaters light sticks or wands, and obliging them 

 to plant one in the ground at the spot where a bird 

 has fallen, should be adopted. 



This brings me to one of the most important and 

 difficult points in walking partridges, the picking up 

 in thick cover. It is simple enough when there is 

 only one bird, or perhaps two, down, and both are 

 stone dead. It is when birds are rising thick and 

 fast, seven or eight are dropped in front of the 

 different guns, one or two more behind, and of 

 these, say, two are evident runners that the trouble 

 begins. If this takes place at the end of the field 

 there is less difficulty ; but when it is in the middle 

 of the field, there are more fresh birds in front 



M 



