160 THE GROUSE 



the available returns, over a long series of 

 years, of the low-lying moors of the Low- 

 lands and England, point with no uncertain 

 finger to the practice of regular driving as 

 the direct cause to which the enormous 

 increase, varying from 300 to as much as 

 800 per cent, is directly due. 



A variety of reasons contribute to this 

 result. In the first place, a moor which is 

 driven is far less frequently disturbed than 

 one which is shot over dogs. Probably it 

 is only driven once, or at most twice in the 

 year, instead of being liable to invasion 

 any day of the week throughout the 

 opening months of the shooting season. 

 Of course birds are far more harried and 

 disturbed in a day's driving than they 

 would be in a day's shooting over dogs, 

 and it might possibly be thought that 

 after birds have been driven about all 

 morning, to go on driving them about in 

 the afternoon would be just as likely to 

 scare them off the moor, as it would to 

 leave them in peace after lunch, and 

 shoot them again on another day. 



