GOOD BAGS. 213 



inland are persecuted with nets, snares, and even 

 traps. If severe frost sets in they are knocked 

 over with sticks, and are then worthless. 



During the last hard winter in Ireland (1881), the 

 fishermen, not to be outdone by the fowlers, brought 

 out their herring-nets, and by dragging them at 

 night over the unfrozen spots, captured large num- 

 bers of Snipe. I have known of fifty being hawked 

 round the country for sale, after one such night's 

 work, at a penny apiece, the result of a single net. 

 The game dealers being overstocked with Snipe in 

 wretched condition, and unable, in consequence, to 

 dispose of them, refused to purchase any more from 

 the fowlers, who then offered them round the coun- 

 try at threepence a dozen, or whatever, in fact, they 

 would fetch. Long will Ireland, and especially the 

 counties of Kerry and Clare, feel the effects of such 

 indiscriminate slaughter. 



The first great destruction of Snipe in modern 

 times was caused by the famously severe winter of 

 the Crimean War, 1854-55. Snow then lay a foot 

 deep over Ireland for eight weeks. When the thaw 

 came at last, the skeletons of innumerable Snipe 

 were to be seen strewn over the country. The 

 hard winter of 1878-79, and the much severer one 

 of T 880-8 1, have still further damaged the Snipe- 

 shooter's sport. 



Though Snipe have diminished so greatly in 

 Ireland within the last score or more of years, other 

 wildfowl, that do not breed to the same extent, 

 have not, excepting Quail and Bitterns. The 

 former of these were almost common not so long 

 since. In county Mayo ten to twelve couple of 



