'OVER DOGS' 113 



ing of the habits of pointers or setters and their 

 manner of hunting the ground will teach you much. 

 Often when you have found birds up wind of the dog, 

 especially if it is blowing pretty hard, it is worth while 

 to make a cast back to see whether he has not struck 

 the scent between two lots of birds, and whether there 

 are not some more of them down wind of him. Espe- 

 cially must all these points be attended to when you 

 are hunting the ground which you have filled by 

 driving broken coveys and scattered birds on to it. 

 Towards evening every bit of such ground must be 

 carefully searched, and you will soon acquire an eye 

 for the likely patches for grouse to lie in. Activity 

 and judgment are also much required when, as often 

 happens on high ground, you have to work an area 

 of deep moss-hags with steep sides of yielding peat, 

 and intersected by little ravines, which, powdered with 

 stones and, maybe, ancient roots, look like portions 

 of the bed of some primaeval flood, (irouse on this 

 sort of ground rarely lie well, being mostly old birds, 

 or, if not, being on the move themselves from one 

 hillock to the other, and here you will do twice as 

 much execution if you utilise the ground in your 

 pursuit. Keep as much as you can on the tops of 

 the hillocks, leaping from one to the other; or, on the 

 contrary, if you see a doubtful or uneasy point, and 



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