3i8 THE FOWLER IN IRELAND. 



Macartney, of Avonmore, Ballybrenk, to whom this 

 information was imparted, says that this, coupled 

 with Colonel Whyte's note, which appeared in The 

 Field in June, 1874, as well as the remarks in 

 Maxwell's "Wild Sports of the West," written 

 in 1832, induces him to think that 1834, or 1835, 

 was the date at which the ancient stock of deer 

 formerly abundant in the wilds of Erris, were nearly 

 if not quite extinct. 



But although Red-deer became scarce in Erris, 

 their last resort in the county of Mayo, some years 

 previous to the " Irish Famine" (1846-47), I have 

 several undoubted proofs from gentlemen now 

 living that a few roamed over the more solitary 

 mountains up to that date, when those then exist- 

 ing were hunted down with desperate energy by 

 the hunger-stricken hill-men. In Achill they were 

 extinct long before, but the sharp neck of high 

 land that connects Achill Head with the rest of 

 the island is still pointed out as the spot where 

 " Brian," a famous deer-killer, used to catch these 

 animals in a pit-fall as they wandered, or were 

 driven by him, over the narrow ridge alluded to. 

 The last year of the famine (1847), a magnificent 

 Red-deer, that by battle or gunshot had lost an 

 eye, frequented a high mountain near Mulranny, in 

 the Ballycroy district. His sleek, well-fed form was 

 now and then scanned with longing eyes by the 

 starving peasant. Many a watcher hid in vain for 

 the chance of a shot. At length, one misty dawn, 

 man and beast unexpectedly stood face to face on a 

 high peak. The wished-for prize stood so large 

 and near, that the too anxious hand trembled, the 



