GOOD BAGS. 211 



ton adds : " The magistrates of Kerry have recom- 

 mended the open season for Snipe-shooting to be 

 extended until the ist of March. I think both 

 Cock and Snipe-shooting should end on the loth of 

 February ; for even before that date the birds lose 

 their condition and have commenced pairing. I 

 have frequently heard Snipe bleating during the 

 first week of February."* 



The Hon. E. De Moleyns has favoured me with 

 the following notes from his game-book, showing the 

 excellent sport he has had with Snipe on the Ven- 

 try estate, near Dingle, the property of his brother, 

 Lord Ventry. In ten days' shooting in February, 

 1 86 1, he killed 363 Snipe. In 1866, on March Qth, 

 he fired thirty-one shots at Snipe and bagged 

 twenty-seven of them. On January 28, 1867, he 

 killed ninety-seven Snipe between 10 A.M. and 3.15 

 P.M., shooting twenty-two couple in the first two 

 hours, and on February 2nd of the same year he 

 closed the season with a bag of 105 Snipe to his 

 own gun. Mr. De Moleyns, Colonel Peyton and 

 Captain R. Denny are, par excellence, the crack 

 Snipe shots of co. Kerry. 



But Snipe are not so plentiful now in Ireland 



* While referring to the excellent bags made by Colonel Peyton in 

 Ireland, I trust I may be permitted to mention an interesting souvenir 

 presented by him to a gamekeeper on the estate of Lord Ventry, 

 in Kerry, in remembrance of a remarkable day's shooting which he 

 enjoyed on that property in December 1871. The souvenir referred 

 to is a handsome knife, on which is engraved the following inscrip- 

 tion : On one side, " From Col. Peyton, 7th Dragoon Guards, to 

 A. Thompson." On the other side, " In remembrance of a good 

 bag made by Col. Peyton on Lord Ventry's property, nth December, 

 1871, viz., two Wild Ducks, four Teal, three Plovers, three Hares, 

 and fifty-one couple of Snipe." 



P. 2 



