286 THE KEEPERS BOOK 



covert, to cross the open space and be lined facing the 

 detached clump, that is, some distance in front of the 

 guns. This will ensure the birds passing over their 

 heads, and gives the guns a better chance of high 

 and strong-going birds. 



(2) Where it is proposed to follow the method of 

 driving the birds into a corner of the main covert, 

 the latter should be worked in a series of beats until 

 the whole of the birds are at the flushing-point. The 

 cover of the flushing-point must be attended to as 

 carefully as in the detached clump, and from it there 

 should run a narrow strip of similar cover along the 

 whole face of the wood. In this case there must be a 

 drive or open space made inside the cover, where most 

 of the guns are placed. The birds on being flushed 

 will fly homewards, as in the first case. Stops as before. 



(3) The third method we have indicated consists 

 in driving birds into a turnip or potato-field some 

 hundred yards in front of the main covert, stops being 

 placed at the end and sides of the field. The guns 

 stand in the open between the main covert and the 

 field, and some beaters advance into the field some 

 sixty or seventy yards and halt. The rest of the beaters 

 then go round and bring the field back in the home- 

 ward direction. The birds rise, pass over the heads 

 of the stationary beaters, and make for the covert, 

 passing in their flight over the guns. 



If a keeper is obliged from unforeseen circum- 

 stances to place the guns instead of the host, he ought 



