188 THE GROUSE 



flankers. In Yorkshire it seems customary 

 to call the advanced beaters flankers, and 

 the men stationed on the flanks of the 

 drive pointsmen. These latter are known 

 in Scotland as flankers, and it is to them 

 we would now refer. They should also 

 be given distinguishing flags ; white for 

 the drivers, red or red and white for the 

 head keeper, and yellow for the flankers, 

 are the generally adopted colours. Birds 

 on rising will always shape their flight to 

 avoid the first suspicious object that has 

 met their eye, and therefore the man who 

 flushes the birds should be pushing them 

 in the direction they are wanted to go. 

 This is simplicity itself on flat ground, 

 but in rough and hilly country, when the 

 beaters are continually coming over sky- 

 lines from the bird's point of view, it is 

 one of the hardest things imaginable to 

 get the right man to come first into view 

 over a rise. 



It is otherwise in Yorkshire, which is 

 peculiarly favoured in this respect. There 

 the tyke and the dalesman have an innate 



