GROUSE SHOOTING 
as high as a gun, so that the latter will rest against soft sods when 
leaned against the side. Stones are apt to scratch the barrels and also 
dent them. 
(11) A wooden shelf, with projecting pegs to form gun-rests, fixed in a 
corner not quite the height of a gun from the ground, is a great help 
and convenience. 
(12) The fioor of the butt should always be level and firm, and also be 
well -drained. If the fioor slopes it is not easy to maintain a true balance 
at the moment of firing ; and if there is a miry mass under foot, the heel 
will sink as the trigger is pulled, particularly when the bird is high in 
the air. In either case the aim is much interfered with, and a miss is the 
probable result. 
(13) If the drainage is good, grass sods make the best flooring, after 
they have settled and become firm, but new-laid sods are so unstable 
they almost ensure bad shooting. A flooring of flag -stones is very good, 
firm, and comparatively dry in wet weather, though not quite so com- 
fortable to the feet as sound grass. 
(14) Permanent butts should be large enough to contain three persons 
without crowding, and a retriever besides. A post should be driven into 
the ground well inside the butt, to fasten the dog to in case of need. 
(15) Butts should be so enclosed that shelter is afforded from whatever 
quarter a storm may come. The extra labour is well repaid by the more 
accurate shooting, for no one can shoot in his best form when exposed 
to an icy wind, or a pitiless hailstorm, or fast -falling snow when shooting 
late in the autumn. Moreover, birds come on with less swerving when 
they do not see the forms of the shooters, and therefore present easier 
marks. 
(16) The top sod of the butts should have an irregular outline, something 
after the fashion of battlements ; or else have long -stalked heather growing 
upwards, to hide the head of the gun on the watch. It is an instructive, 
amusing, and not unfamiliar sight to the denizen of the moors, skilled 
in every wile of the grouse, to see his neighbour in the next butt, from 
down South, standing up to his full height, with head and shoulders in 
full view of the grouse, and yet with a touching belief the simple birds 
will come within range and be killed ! Sometimes, indeed not unfrequently, 
the master may be seen taking due precautions to hide behind his butt, 
yet standing bolt upright behind him is his careless loader. 
(17) Forty -five to fifty yards are quite far enough for the butts to be 
65 
K 
