412 THE GREAT IRISH WILDFOWL YEAR. 



One of the last of these great incursions of wildfowl 

 from the north, upon our coasts, took place during 

 the winter of 1880 and 1881. In Ireland that season 

 is still regarded as " the great wildfowl year, " and 

 Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, in his book on Irish coast 

 shooting says, that it was the best season ever 

 known there; his game list footing up to 1500 birds 

 of the duck species, as the result of the season's 

 sport. The best month (probably January 1 88 1, which 

 was very cold and calm) producing 800 wildfowl, and 

 his best week 300. * 



These results look almost like a return of the good 

 old times ; but we can have no doubt that the multitudes 

 of duck seen upon the Irish coasts on that occasion, 

 were simply a temporary incursion of birds driven by 

 the severity of the cold from the northward, in the 

 way we have already described. 



Sometimes while the assemblages of such great 

 migratory hordes of fowl last, heavy shots may 

 occasionally be made by day, by sailing to them on 

 the open sea ; but most generally the greatest successes 

 are made with a punt and punt gun at night, when 

 great companies of them are collected together feeding 

 upon the mud banks left uncovered by the tide. The 

 companies of widgeon upon the estuaries of the Irish 

 coast being still at times so immense, that Sir Ralph 

 Payne-Gallwey states that the roar of sound produced 

 by their countless pinions, as they rose or pitched, 

 could be heard a mile or more away, even when the 

 wind blew from the fowler towards the birds, f This 



* See The Fowler in Ireland; or Notes on the Haunts and Habits of 

 Wildfowl and Seafowl, by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Bart., 1882, p. 12. 

 f Ibid., pp. 37 and 38. 



