238 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



It is a curious fact that when flag-men are seen at a long 

 distance ahead of them, the grouse may or may not swerve in 

 their flight, but seen suddenly when so near as to leave just 

 more than enough time for turning before the impetus has 

 carried them over the head of the man with the flag, they turn 

 off instead of merely swerving. Consequently, the men who 

 are set to turn grouse are a law to themselves. They show 

 themselves at the psychological moment, according to the speed 

 of the grouse. Only a very little is required to turn a slow 

 up-wind pack of grouse, whereas very much will sometimes not 

 turn fast down-wind birds. This turning the birds from the 

 point towards which they are driven is often necessary. Thus 

 grouse may not be willing to drive in another direction, or to 

 drive otherwise might be to lose the birds for the day, and 

 to have the butts where the turn in the flight occurs might be to 

 allow the majority to go straight on into some other moor, 

 not to be seen again that day, if ever. 



When birds are, or can be, collected or concentrated upon 

 the ground, it is much more simple. It is difficult then to make 

 everything go right, but it does not require quite the Napoleon 

 of tactics that the other method does. Obviously the con- 

 centration of grouse upon the ground implies a larger beat 

 than in the other case one in which the natural flight of the 

 grouse will induce them to settle before they get within sight 

 of the butts. This concentration and settlement of the birds 

 enables a new formation of drivers to be made, for the collection 

 of the birds may have caused driving right away from the butts 

 in the first instance, and in most cases not directly towards 

 them. The object of all driving is not only to put as many 

 grouse as possible within range of the guns, but the more 

 important part is that of keeping on the moor all those grouse 

 that go by the butts, to be used again and again the same day. 



Another way of driving grouse is based upon the same 

 principle, except that the driving is simple, because the beats 

 are short and direct to the guns. In this case natural common 

 sense is much more effective than in the other two, which must 

 depend upon local knowledge almost entirely. But in all 



