LOW FLIGHT AND HIGH 189 



Grouse, partridges, and pheasants are low-flying 

 birds, unlike wood-pigeons and rooks ; it is their 



habit to skim along near to earth. And 

 Low pheasants might be truly described as 

 anf ht g roun d birds. Only on occasions do they 

 High fly high, and then usually for one of three 



definite causes. Flushed on high ground 

 they may maintain a high elevation as they cross a 

 valley. Rising on low ground, the direction of their 

 flight may necessitate an upward line, as when trees 

 or hills lie before them. Forced to rise suddenly, 

 having lain low while danger has approached, on 

 finding men in full sight between themselves and the 

 place they have determined to reach they then 

 rocket instinctively. Rooks and wood-pigeons natu- 

 rally fly at a height well out of gun-shot ; and the 

 cynical critic of British shooting methods might 

 observe with truth that the bagging of a dozen 

 ordinary wood-pigeons involves a higher order of 

 sportsmanship than the bagging of fifty ordinary 

 pheasants. 



r 



As with partridges, a great benefit has followed the 



fashion of driving grouse, instead of walking them 



up, with setters and pointers : for the 



Wily familiar reason that the old birds come first 



Coeks 6 to the uns an( * are tne fi 1 ^ to be shot. If 



not shot, these old birds would not allow 



the young ones to nest near them, and would drive 



