SCOTCH DRIVING 127 



always to fly along the hill, and round the bottom or 

 side of a knoll, whether great or small, rather than over 

 or across it. It is very wonderful to see how they 

 save themselves in their flight, especially when they 

 are going against a heavy wind. Could you be along- 

 side of them, and travelling with them, you would note 

 the marvellous way in which they give themselves the 

 benefit of the ground to escape rising into the wind, 

 passing round all the excrescences and through all 

 the depressions in the hillside, clinging close to the 

 heather, but always manoeuvring, sidling, or creeping 

 to reach the alighting place which they have in view. 



This characteristic will aid you greatly in the choice 

 of the place for your line of butts, which, as everybody 

 now knows, is the important factor in driving. The 

 birds are not likely to leave the hillside on which 

 you find them ; consequently you have only to study 

 the routes they will take in flying along it. 



If the ground is so intersected by rocks, precipices, 

 or deep gorges that your drivers cannot travel it at 

 all at least, without consuming the whole day in one 

 or two drives you may give it up ; but if your men 

 (-an manage to get about the ground so as to give 

 you, say, at least four or five drives in the day, there is 

 nothing in the flight of the birds on steep ground 

 that you may not turn to your advantage. 



