224 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



responsible for half the apparent wildness of the old cocks. It 

 is well known that nothing makes any birds fly so quickly as 

 the thought that they are seen. Walking straight to a dog's 

 point, the handler in the middle and a gun on each side of him, 

 convinces any self-respecting old cock that he is seen, and off 

 he goes. On the other hand, if the handler advances in the tracks 

 of one of the shooters, and these walk up 40 yards wide of 

 the dog on either side, they may then safely pass the point a 

 considerable distance, and if it is necessary, they can, with the 

 handler, go back to the dog. If birds have allowed them to pass 

 thus, they will also allow them to close in on them, for they will 

 feel themselves surrounded. The old cock meantime has assuredly 

 run forward, and nine times out of ten also turned to right or left, 

 and the chances are great that one of the shooters will by 

 these tactics just head him off, and get a possible shot at a 

 bird that would otherwise have stood no chance of being killed. 



The walking wide, in first driving, is practised on the 

 Ruabon moors by Mr. Wynne Corrie in order to secure a 

 greater proportion of old cocks and let off more young birds 

 than would otherwise be the case. Mr. Corrie has given the 

 author some very valuable information upon his management 

 of the Ruabon Hills, but clearly if such tactics are necessary 

 on a moor where the old birds cannot by wildness take to 

 the " tops " and save themselves, they are ten times more 

 necessary where this can be and is always done. In Caithness- 

 shire the old cocks can be killed at any time of the season ; 

 they run there ; and a dog that rodes well and fast is a necessity. 

 Mr. W. Arkwright, of pointer celebrity, makes a practice of 

 hunting down these old birds until he makes his grouse moor 

 similar to that paradise regained as a sign of which seven 

 women were to cling to one man. In practice it is only two 

 hens that cling to one cock, and this upset of the natural 

 order has also been observed on the Ruabon Hills, particularly 

 in 1905 ; and the keeper there tells the writer that when it 

 occurs he always notices that it is followed by a good season. 

 Here are two opposite methods accomplishing the same end, and 

 the author knows enough of the subject, besides, to be able to 



