426 SHOOTING. 



should be stationed in all directions on the hill 

 tops. It is the duty of a marker to watch the 

 birds while the shooter is engaged in re-loading, 

 and bagging his game. When birds are scarce, it 

 is no loss of time to follow a marked bird ; but 

 when plentiful, the shooter should not deviate from 

 the line he has chosen. When birds are abundant, 

 markers are a nuisance. When scarce, a marker 

 may be serviceable, provided a thorough-bred one 

 can be obtained some shepherd lad, whose profi- 

 ciency may be guessed at by the knowing cunning 

 which glitters in his eye when he is told that his 

 services are required. A youth of this description 

 will lie down when a bird rises, put up his hands 

 to his face, like the blinders of a waggon-horse, 

 and mark a bird down to an inch, a mile off! 

 These youths have an unaccommodating knack 

 of slipping wounded birds into their own proper 

 pockets unseen ; or of hiding them in peat-holes, so 

 that neither Turk, Tiger, nor Spaniard, the re- 

 trievers, can find them ! Retrievers are seldom 

 used in grouse -shooting; nor are they often re- 

 quired, for a winged grouse does not run like a 

 partridge, but hides itself in the nearest patch of 

 heather, so that the shooter knows where to find 

 the bird to a few yards. Now and then, indeed, 

 an old cock will run, after being winged, much in 

 the same manner as he has been used to run before 

 the brood on the approach of danger. 



However orderly the array of a covey however 

 tempting the opportunity the partridge-shooter 

 should not be induced to " rake" them. The 



