PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING 69 
without the guns having long waits; to which there 
might be objection on the score of expense, or 
absence of a reliable commander for a second gang 
of drivers, to say nothing of the fact that the extent 
of ground or the supply of partridges—probably 
both—render driving with two sets of beaters 
absurd. In any circumstances double driving must 
be very well managed, or all sorts of complications 
are more than likely to occur. A short drive late 
in the season may be successful occasionally, as 
when birds are known to be in a field of luxuriant 
cover, but to make a general practice of short 
drives after early October is to court failure. You 
will not even see half the birds which are on the 
ground, for either the guns going to their stands or 
the beaters getting round will put up prematurely 
most of the birds that already have not departed on 
legs or wings. 
It fell to my lot a few years ago to be driving 
partridges on ground that was rather cut up and lay 
awkwardly. The day—high wind and rain—was 
dead against the results possible on the same ground 
in better weather. I began with a down-wind drive 
about half a mile long off some bare fields, on three 
sides of which were boundaries, so there was not 
much in the way of an alternative. A good lot of 
birds, like brown pebbles from a mighty sling, went 
well, though I could not see them reach the guns 
‘for rain. I was informed when the drive was over 
