ON GROUSE-DRIVING 193 



Besides this there should be a keeper 

 whose sole duties are picking up. During 

 the drive he should remain well con- 

 cealed some two or three hundred yards 

 behind the butts, where he can mark 

 ^own wounded birds that carry on from 

 the drive. This is scarcely necessary if 

 there is to be a return drive afterwards, 

 but when the ground behind the butts 

 is not subsequently to be driven he 

 may do good work, and the writer can 

 remember a man so placed picking up 

 seventeen birds out of a total of sixty 

 killed in a drive where the birds had a 

 strong; wind behind them. Most of these 

 birds had carried on out of sight of the 

 butts, and would have been lost to the 

 bag if there had been no one to mark 

 where they fell. Besides this precaution, 

 a man with a brace of spaniels, or a good 

 working retriever, should always hunt 

 round the butts after the guns have 

 finished picking up. 



Driving, when all these points have 

 been considered, is a beautiful and 



13 



