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there is oue source of consolation to tlie sportsman in Ire- 

 land at this season of the year — the snipe are plentiful and 

 there are also teal to be had, if you are web-footed, or 

 happen to have brought with you a pair pf rubber wading 

 stockings. You may speak as contemptuously as you 

 jDlease about "bog trotters," but I shall, after my recent 

 experience, entertain a profound respect for the natives 

 who can traverse these treacherous and trackless 

 wastes, and lead you out safely after a good 

 day's sport. The precise locality in which I have 

 been floundering after snipe is situate midway be- 

 tween the source of the Bush river and Knocknacarry, 

 on the coast. We found fully a hundred brace of birds, 

 and, as a truthful chronicler, I am bound to admit that I 

 did not seriously reduce the number. My companion in 

 arms carried an ancient weapon, which looked to be far 

 more dangerous to himself than to the snipe; but such was 

 not the case — his powder was much straightcr than that 

 from Bromley. Snipe are always more difficult to find 

 after mnonlio'ht nio-hts than when the nights are dark. This 

 is a hint wliicli should be borne in mind by those who have 

 not much experience with these birds. They feed at night 

 when they can see to do so, and betake themselves to in- 

 accessible places during the daytime. After a dark night, 

 however, you will find them on the feeding-ground next 

 morning, and, being hungry, they usually lie close and give 

 the guns a fair chance. A good stock of home-bred snipe 

 are reported from their favourite haunts in the wilds of 

 Ireland, which is par excellence the snipe-shooter's paradise. 

 Unfortunately, there are very few men who can really do 

 justice to a good day's snipe-shooting, and the common 

 cause of these failures to kill is that they fire too soon. My 

 friend that I shot with rarely missed a bird, and the " law '* 

 he gave them was something astonishing. His gun was 

 an old single-barrelled muzzle-loader, nearly six feet long 

 and the way in which he let a snipe that rose at his feet 

 get seventy yards' start before cutting him over was one of 

 the finest performances I ever witnessed. To-day I 

 have been having a turn on the river Bush, for a late-run 



