WOODCOCK. 219 



guns, converted rifles, and Russian muskets,* 

 bagged their fifteen couple a day ; the best shots 

 among them getting from fifteen to twenty couple. 

 These fellows often ran short of ammunition, or, as 

 they told me, would have accounted for many more. 

 Every hedgeway, every ditch and bunch of furze, 

 held its couple or so of Cock ; about the cliffs a 

 dozen might often be seen on the wing at once, 

 and this in a single district where I happened to be 

 coast shooting, namely, on the shores of Clare. This 

 slaughter continued during the greater part of Janu- 

 ary. For an entire week Woodcock might have been 

 bought at from fourpence to sixpence a couple ; Snipe 

 a penny apiece. One dealer alone in the neighbour- 

 ing town, though he had two rivals in the trade, 

 forwarded to Dublin and London a thousand Cock 

 a week for three weeks. I counted laid out on 

 benches eight hundred Woodcock in rows a sight 

 not often to be seen. Nor did this massacre take 

 place in one county alone. From every part of the 

 Irish coast came the same story. 



* These " Rooshians," as they are called in Ireland, were sold 

 after the Crimean War, in which they were taken, by the Government. 

 They were, and are, esteemed very highly by the poor fowlers, as 

 wildfowl guns. They are long stout-barrelled pieces of good range, 

 and excellent though coarse manufacture. They take a full charge 

 an ounce and a half is usual and being strong and heavy, stand well 

 the rough work they are put to. I have seen many in use in Ireland, 

 and have sometimes even come across a French musket that was, I 

 presume, left behind by the French when they attempted to invade 

 Ireland. These were also held in great reputation for nTany years, 

 and not long since I saw one hanging up over a farmer's fireplace 

 in co. Mayo, that had been in constant use throughout the century. 

 A Spanish barrel was formerly of high value in Ireland, and it is 

 recorded of the governor of a certain Irish fortress that he fled by 

 night, taking with him what he prized most his wolfdog and his 

 Spanish gun. 



