WALKING UP 179 



For this class of shooting I think pointers are most 

 useful ; still more so for the man who likes to go out 

 single-handed and kill his eight or ten brace of birds, 

 accompanied only by one man to carry game, ammu- 

 nition and refreshment. It is essential under these 

 circumstances not to blunder on to the birds unex- 

 pectedly, and so probably drive them in the wrong 

 direction. It is a very pretty manoeuvre, and one 

 requiring all the qualities of the true sportsman, to 

 get round a covey of birds lying fairly near the 

 boundary fence, work yourself in between them and 

 the enemy's territory and put them back into the 

 centre of your own ground. To do this it is essential 

 to know where they are lying in the first instance, and 

 you cannot do better than employ a steady pointer 

 for this purpose. 



I would go farther than this, and recommend 

 pointers or setters for the class of shooting I mentioned 

 having had in Perthshire two or three guns and about 

 eight men in short, what may be described as the 

 average or popular form of partridge-shooting. I well 

 recollect the dismay with which, in spite of consider- 

 able keenness and activity, we used to survey a thirty- 

 acre field of turnips as high as your waist, and into 

 which we had driven, say, only two coveys and a 

 brace of odd birds. To beat the field properly would 



