CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 285 



as Northern Italy, Transylvania, the Balkans, and 

 Caucasus"; it is found on "both sides of the 

 Mediterranean basin in winter, and is resident in 

 the wooded mountains of the Canaries, Madeira, 

 and the Azores. In the cold season it is in evidence 

 in Persia and India, and breeds in the Himalayas 

 at an elevation of 10,000 feet." (Howard Saunders.) 



The specimens in the case were selected out of 

 some thirty birds I shot at Glenbeigh, co. Kerry, in 

 the very hard winter of 1894-95. This was an 

 excellent year so far as the sportsman was con- 

 cerned, but an uncommonly bad one — I'm afraid — 

 for the poor bird ; as just about the time he should 

 be leaving our country he was in such an emaciated 

 condition as to render a flight of any distance 

 virtually an impossibility. 



I remember Ireland was practically under snow 

 nearly the whole of February, 1895, ^^^ many 

 thousands of Woodcock must have died in con- 

 sequence. 



The Snipe. 



It is really a question which is the more interest- 

 ing species, the Snipe or the Woodcock; the decision 

 must rest, therefore, with the sportsman himself. In 

 my sporting expeditions to Ireland and elsewhere, I 

 have met with men of both persuasions ; that is to 

 say, given a good Irish bog, with a fair sprinkling 

 of Snipe, and on the other hand, good Woodcock 

 ground — both bog and mountain side — you would 

 see one man in the hotel confinincj himself almost 



