212 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



fact that, though he was a novice to grouse, he seemed 

 to be a pretty good hand at picking up. Laying down 

 his birds, and raising the gold-laced beaver with an 

 air peculiar to him, ' Never was on a moor before in 

 my life, I can assure you, gentlemen,' he said, with 

 perfect courtesy. Nevertheless, he had gathered about 

 fifteen more birds than his master, always a most 

 generous neighbour, had claimed ; and though he 

 must have narrowly escaped an apoplectic fit, he and 

 his dogs continued to work equally hard all day. 



In laying out your lines of butts, bear in mind 

 that there is no invariable necessity for your driving 

 line to progress from a given base in a direct line to 

 the centre of the butts. It frequently occurs that on 

 a particular range of moor the birds will always fly in 

 a great curve, or a complete ring, eventually getting 

 back in this manner to the ground they were flushed 

 upon. In this case you must also drive on a curve, 

 and the first half of the beat may have to be driven 

 by advancing almost at right angles to the direction 

 desired, or, so to speak, across the face of the row of 

 butts. As in this diagram, for instance, you may wish 

 to drive your birds, mostly lying about A, to some- 

 where about the point D. 



But for reasons connected with the nature of the 

 ground, they will not fly from A to D direct, but in- 



