270 PARTRIDGES 



view, and as flankers must in many cases 

 be placed close in to the drive if they are 

 to act at all, they have to be very careful 

 not to expose themselves, lying 'doggo' 

 till the critical moment when one well- 

 timed wave of the flag turns the covey 

 which was edging out of the drive back 

 over the guns. Unlike poets, flankers are 

 made and not born, and it is quite useless 

 to expect a man to flank a drive by the 

 light of nature ; for a man's natural instinct 

 seems to be to plant himself solidly in a 

 commanding position, where it is to be 

 supposed every bird in the field is intended 

 to notice him and say to itself : " Ah, I 

 see a man on that knoll ; I shall not fly 

 that way if these clodhoppers behind 

 disturb me again." In point of fact, if 

 birds can see the man with the flag all the 

 time, they treat his efforts with indifference 

 when other danger becomes pressing and 

 they wish to quit the scene in his direction. 

 So the flanker must be taught that his duty 

 for the most part is to remain completely 

 hidden, and only to appear as a sudden 



