170 DRI VEN BIRDS 



should be accounted for. It is an easy matter to 

 make a fair shooting average over dogs, whereas it is 

 at times an excessively difficult matter to make an 

 average at all at driven birds, as, for instance, where 

 the lie of the ground, bad light, the inequalities offered 

 by hillocks, an unfavourable position, all combine to 

 increase the difficultv of doing effectual work amongst 

 the approaching packs. Indeed, as regards the science 

 of the shooting, no one who has had any experience of 

 driven grouse, and the grand sport which can be 

 shown in a well-organized drive, can equally compare 

 the two methods. Shooting over dogs is doubtless 

 a very grand sport, inasmuch as the intelligence of the 

 dogs is brought into play in conjunction with that of 

 the man ; but the skill demanded of the latter is vastly 

 inferior in the one sport to that of the other. Suffice 

 it, however, to say that both descriptions of shooting 

 are capable of affording a maximum of sport in their 

 different ways. 



I have often been very much surprised when reading 

 the objections advanced against driving which have 

 from time to time appeared in the various sporting 

 papers, at the statements made by different corre- 

 spondents, and have only been able to conclude that 

 few, if any, of them could ever have taken part in a 

 well-organized drive ; and I do not consider that any 

 man who has not had long and varied experience 

 should presume to instruct others in the art of shooting 

 driven birds, whether grouse or pheasants, no matter 

 how well he might be qualified to instruct a novice in 

 the matter of shooting from over dogs in August or 

 pigeons out of traps. None but a veteran at the sport 

 is qualified to offer advice on such a subject, and 



