206 AUTUMNS IN ARGYLESHIRE 



be obtained in all instances, and one or more 

 of the guns has to put up with very difficult 

 shots, but is often compensated for his disad- 

 vantage in that respect by getting more birds 

 over him than those who are favoured with a 

 more distant horizon. The sides of the butts 

 should be sufficiently high to screen the occu- 

 pant from chance pellets, but this again is not 

 always possible, and great care should be exer- 

 cised not to fire along the line. This may 

 sound like an unnecessary warning, or one, at 

 all events, that should only be addressed to 

 tailors and tyros ; but my experience shows that 

 it needs to be hammered in by constant repeti- 

 tion. I have seen good and careful sportsmen, 

 new to grouse-driving, fire dangerous shots, and 

 have had difficulty afterwards in persuading 

 them of the truth of the impeachment. The 

 fact is that they believed that they were 

 firing well in front, and did not allow for the 

 swing of the gun in following the bird at an 

 obtuse angle to the right or left. The safe 

 rule is only to shoot birds either well in front 

 or behind, and never under any circumstances 

 to follow the pack with the barrels right round 

 a semicircle. Different treatment is meted out 

 to delinquents by different people. I remem- 

 ber one sufferer whom I found bleeding from 

 a wound in the nose at the end of a drive, who 

 entreated me to say nothing about it, as he was 



