244 SHOOTING THE GROUSE 



game driving no flags are necessary, or at the most 

 one or two for men posted on the flank to prevent the 

 birds taking some particular line away from the drive. 



Driving them from the woods is almost entirely a 

 question of judicious placing of the guns ; the keeper 

 should know the points or ' passes ' where they 

 almost invariably break from a particular covert, and 

 here the guns should be placed pretty close together. 

 As this conduces to talking, silence must again be 

 urged in waiting for these birds, the fact that they 

 drive best up wind furnishing an additional reason for- 

 the exercise of caution and self-control. 



Walking the woods and broken ground in line in 

 late September or early October is a very pretty form 

 of sport, though the line is very difficult to keep in 

 proper formation. Here you get very unexpected and 

 difficult shots, a blackcock rising with a great rattle 

 out of a little ravine being a customer whom it requires 

 some skill to stop. ' At this time of year the cocks are 

 found singly, scattered about the woods, seeking the 

 various berries and grasses which they like as a change 

 from heather, and some of them will lie very close. 

 But they are then mostly young cocks ; so that for the 

 good of your breeding stock it is better not to pursue 

 them too closely in this fashion. The same remark 

 applies even more strongly to attacking the young 



