212 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



as they used to be.* There are not only more 

 shooters, but loading is so quick and easy to what it 

 was that the birds have not the same chance they had 

 in the days of muzzle-loaders. A Snipe or Cock 

 can scarce rise before a shooter without a chance of 

 being brought down. There is no such thing now- 

 a-days as being unloaded ; the birds cannot get 

 away between the shots as they used in times gone 

 by. In non-migratory birds, such as Pheasants 

 and Partridges, quick firing is a small matter ; it is 

 merely necessary to hatch out a larger number of 

 eggs in one instance, and to spare the birds in the 

 other. In wild game, such as Cock and Snipe, it is 

 very different. You can't get their eggs ; you are 

 not inclined to spare such transitory visitors who 

 would ? and no care or money can replace them. 

 I am sure, therefore, the paucity of Cock and Snipe 

 in Ireland is due to continued shooting with im- 

 proved weapons. Then, again, Ireland has been 

 visited of late years by two or three most unusually 

 hard winters, which drove Cock and Snipe to the 

 coast, where they became an easy prey to every 

 prowling peasant with a gun and who has not one ? 

 unhappily, in this country, sometimes used on other 

 than lawful objects of pursuit, worse luck ! Snipe 



* A gentleman who died at a great age last year often described to 

 me how that, in his young days, Stephen's Green, Dublin, now so 

 tastefully laid out with flowers and walks, was a sure find for a couple 

 or more of Snipe, and now and then even a Wild Duck or Teal, and 

 that, when studying law in his lodgings near at hand, he had often 

 snatched up his gun and walked over the marsh as a relaxation, and 

 so added a dainty to his dinner. He used to tell with emphasis how 

 mighty hard it was to kill a Snipe with a flint fowling-piece, and to 

 keep it pointed straight at the twisting bird whilst the priming was 

 hanging fire. 



