198 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Snipe and Woodcock Residents and Migrants Haunts and Habits 

 The " Humming" of the Snipe Good Snipe Districts Snipe- 

 shooting, Past and Present Good Bags Weight of Snipe 

 Sabine's Snipe Solitary or Double Snipe Jack Snipe 

 Springes Woodcock : Weight of Migration of Woodcock 

 Evening Flight Nesting in Ireland Woodcock carrying its 

 Young Good Years for Cock Remarkable Bags. 



SNIPE, like their larger relations, vary much in pleni- 

 tude different years. But many more of these birds 

 nest in Ireland than is the case with Cock. In some 

 districts Snipe breed numerously year after year. 

 During frost they may be heard all through the 

 night on the shore and flats, by the fowler lying in 

 wait for Duck, as they fly from one spot of ooze to 

 another. On the ground I never heard them utter 

 any sound. I have remarked Snipe flutter up 

 near my punt at night, and they would then cry. 

 Though the same birds might have been feeding for 

 an hour close by, they were invariably still, perhaps 

 too busy with buried bill to be otherwise. I have 

 sometimes been conscious of a Snipe pitching within 

 a few yards of me at night, but could never see them. 

 When it is almost impossible to see a Snipe on the 

 ground by day, however close, how doubly hard it 

 is, even on a clear night, may easily be imagined. 

 During severe frost I have, through curiosity, crept 

 up to springs on a mountain side, where I knew 



