166 THE GROUSE 



stock, the ground must not be so steep or 

 rugged as to prevent the line of beaters 

 getting over it, and the main portion of 

 the shooting must be given over entirely 

 to driving, shooting over dogs being 

 confined to a few days on outsides. 



On a moor where dogs are used over 

 the centre of the ground early in the 

 season, where the heather is scanty or 

 coarse and cannot be improved, where the 

 natural features obviously forbid the 

 attempt, or where one flight will take the 

 birds over the march, it is best to give 

 up all idea of driving on a large scale. 

 On such a moor driving may be pursued 

 in a desultory way, and very good fun 

 it is, when the season draws on and 

 the birds pack and get wild, to go out a 

 party of two or three guns with a scratch 

 team of three or four beaters, and a 

 keeper who knows the game. Short 

 drives and plenty of them must be the 

 order on days like these, and twenty brace 

 of grouse will be a very satisfactory total 

 at the end of a day, which, if things have 



