1 88 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



with your second behind the line, and he has fallen 

 stone dead in that patch of rushes by the little 

 trickle of water. ' You ought to have had them 

 both.' Yes, you ought, but the first barrel at a fast 

 grouse at about twenty feet from the ground always 

 demands just sufficient forethought to remember to 

 lift the left arm well up and to shoot well over him. 



Now they are coming more frequently, and mostly 

 very straight to us from the ridge to our right, and 

 from the front. Look out again from the left you 

 see those had got to within ten yards of you, coming 

 from below before you saw them, and that is why, 

 instead of getting at least three, if not four of them, 

 all ea.sy shots, you in your hurry missed your first, 

 killed your second behind, and fired two most ridiculous 

 shots at him with your second gun after they were too 

 far off. Your eyes should run over all the ground in 

 front of you, from the extreme right to left and back 

 again, incessantly. Especially you should watch two 

 points that where the ridge sinks into the skyline 

 eighty yards ahead, and that on the left where they 

 come creeping to you from below. You ought by 

 now to be getting to know the instant a bird is 

 in sight whether he is really coming to you or not. 

 Observe how those that you first see in front of 

 you nearly all swing with the wind down to No. 3 on 



