2 55 CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 



obliquely with several shades of brown." (Howard 

 Saunders.) 



To speak of the Snipe as a sporting bird, there is 

 hardly anything that will touch it. When I say this, 

 I am sure I express the views of a great many 

 sportsmen who would sooner have it than the best 

 of Pheasant and Partridg^e shootingf. 



I remember once meeting with a retired officer of 

 a crack Hussar Regiment in co. Kerry, a Col. P., 

 who used to tell me that, although he had every 

 opportunity of other sorts of game shooting, nothing 

 carried the same fascination with it that Snipe 

 shootincr did over the bog-s of Ireland. This officer 

 is an old man now, and when he first retired from 

 the Service — a good many years ago — Snipe were 

 so plentiful in co. Kerry that you could walk them 

 up on the bogs, with a beater or two on either side 

 of you ; and if you were a decent shot there would 

 be no difficulty in making good bags. He himself, 

 being a crack shot — his name, in fact, being a 

 household word in the south of Ireland — used to 

 make, what nowadays would be considered to be 

 quite phenomenal bags of anything from twenty to 

 forty couple per diem. Owing to the vast increase 

 in the number of sportsmen who prefer Snipe 

 shooting and the number of sporting hotels that 

 cater for the public in this direction, renting large 

 tracts of shooting — which are a combination of 

 mountain side and bogs - from Irish landed pro- 

 prietors, Snipe have now so materially diminished in 

 numbers, that if you went out to-clay, as did Col. P. 



