148 HINTS ON GROUSE DRIVING. 



before you aim, as you think, well in advance of the 

 leading bird in a pack or at a couple or three birds 

 close together, which you artfully hope to annex 

 with one cartridge. The aimed-at object goes gaily 

 on, but to your horror a totally different bird, flying 

 some two or three yards behind the leader which you 

 had marked as your own, collapses and bites the 

 dust! Comment is unnecessary. Lesson No. I. 

 Learn to fire well forward, for, although a grouse is a 

 heavier bird than a partridge, he does not move his 

 wings so rapidly, nor beat as many strokes with them 

 in the same space of time, yet, what with the swing 

 that he acquires from the longer distance that he has 

 come, possibly part of it down hill, and what with the 

 strong wind behind him, which so often urges him on 

 his wild career, I verily believe that, as a rule, he 

 flieth the faster of the twain ; and, in consequence,, 

 the bead must be drawn further in front of his beak. 

 The most successful grouse-driving shots I have 

 noticed pitch their gun straight up at a bird the 

 instant they make up their minds to shoot ; until that 

 moment both the gun and the arms of the shooter are 

 motionless. Unnecessary movement has a tendency 

 to scare the birds and alter their flight. Swing is at 

 a discount in grouse driving, however valuable else- 

 where, and any tendency to follow a bird round 

 should be eliminated as quickly as possible, as savour- 

 ing much of danger to the occupants of batteries on 

 either side. 



