i8o THE KEEPERS BOOK 



position of the flanks must vary according to the ground 

 and the direction of the wind. 



Having enumerated the three main points which 

 must serve as the basis of the keeper's knowledge, 

 let us glance for a moment at some of the practical 

 duties which are the natural outcome of this know- 

 ledge. 



The first thing to be considered is the placing and 

 building of butts. The practical points connected with 

 this procedure may be enumerated 



(1) The butts must be placed in the general line of 

 flight of the birds, which as we have shown, is dis- 

 covered by the keepers, after careful observation from 

 experimental drives. 



(2) Butts should never be placed on the skyline. 

 There is no exception to this law. 



(3) Butts should be so placed that some eighty yards 

 or so of gently sloping ground stretch in front of the 

 guns, this ground constituting the main field of action. 

 The best possible situation is just over a brae or small 

 hill the top of the hill being about eighty, and never 

 more than a hundred, yards from the line of butts. But 

 never, no never, on the skyline ! 



(4) Butts should never be placed where experience 

 has shown that the birds usually fly too high for the 

 g uns f or example, at the bottom of a deep gorge 

 between hills. Birds only dip their line of flight in 

 traversing wide, shallow valleys. In passing over a 

 deep gorge, they maintain their flight at the height of 



