COCK-SHOOTING. 



291 



of Ireland is acknowledged to be very superior ; and when 

 the flight has been large, and the season is sufficiently severe 

 to drive the birds well to cover, there is not, to a quick eye, 

 more beautiful shooting in the world. Some of the covers are 

 copses of natural wood, situated in the very centre of the 

 mountains. Consequently, when the snow falls, every wood- 

 cock for miles around deserts the heath and seeks the nearest 

 shelter. Then will the sportsman be amply repaid for all his 

 labour. From a copse of not more than thirty acres extent, 

 I have seen fifty couple of woodcocks flushed ; and as several 

 excellent covers lay in the immediate vicinity, it was no un- 

 usual thing for two or three guns to bring home twenty, nay, 

 thirty couple. I have known a party fire a number of shots 

 that appeared incredible ; and I have more than once ex- 

 pended my last charge of powder, and left, for want of am- 

 munition, one or more copses untried. 



The best cock-shooting cannot be had without a good deal 

 of fag. Like fox-hunting, it is work for hardy spirits ; and 

 non sine pulvere palma, will apply to both. To reach a 

 mountain-cover, the sportsman must be on the alert two or 

 three hours before daylight, for he has likely some ten Irish 

 miles to ride or drive over, by a rough and dangerous road, 



now rendered scarcely discernible from the adjacent bogs, and 

 hardly passable from the snow-drifts. The short day is hard- 



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