8o Alexander Goodman More. [is 56 



difficulty in winter you may now see only two or three birds ; and the 

 most curious part of the affair is that the Jack Snipes are more numerous 

 of the two. In these parts the scarcity is generally attributed to the 

 great frost of last winter, which is said to have all but exterminated 

 them, and harrowing stones are told of sundry Snipes being found in 

 porches of houses, in sheds, and even in one case actually probing for 

 food in a stable bucket. I presume you will agree that this starvation 

 is likely enough to have taken place and thinned them down ; but is it 

 not very curious the Jacks should have suffered so much less, and does 

 it show the Jack to be a native of a higher north latitude where he may 

 get more hardened to cold ? 



Woodcocks are not very plentiful, nothing to last winter, which 

 was a remarkable season. Do these, again, bear cold better than the 

 Snipe, I wonder ? I have had one or two tolerable days of Partridge- 

 shooting ; that is, they lie pretty well in this country when you do find 

 them, but usually there are only about two coveys known to frequent 

 your beat, and the queer nature of the ground makes it perfectly 

 uncertain where you may find them. 



The Woodcock battues are great fun. I have attended three of 

 them. About six guns are employed, and eight or ten beaters who give 

 tongue most gallantly, and then the glorious uncertainty at the cry of 

 " Mark," whether your side or your neighbour's is to be favoured ; and 

 then the splendid misses that often occur, so that I have seen a bird 

 escape six barrels. It generally results this year in eight or ten or 

 twelve brace, but this is considered much below the average. 



What an interesting bird the cock is ! I never saw one till this 

 winter ; and I cannot help thinking that for all the easy, airy gliding of 

 his flight he must go very fast indeed when once the steam is fairly up. 

 It is a pity the copses here contain no Pheasants, except in a few 

 favoured spots. What a delightful mixture the shooting would then be. 



I have been doing my best to ascertain something about the Irish 

 hare, and I do not know whether it is generally known, but the creature 

 in hard weather turns completely white,* even on quite low mountains 

 (hills rather). This surely ought to settle the question of its being 

 identical with the Scotch Alpine hare, a fact which I found Professor 

 Bell by no means inclined to admit as quite ascertained yet. 



As regards my stay in London, I am sure you will feel very great 

 contempt for me when I tell you that I never once went to the Zoologi- 

 cal Gardens, and only twice to the British Museum. There were, in 

 fact, so many different people to visit, for you know my tastes are some- 

 what loose and general, so that what with a botanist one day and a 

 birdman the next, and various necessary calls and business, I found 

 my three weeks very soon used up. 



I had great luck in getting an introduction to Bell and Yarrell, 

 and I cannot speak too highly of either of them. They are such capital 



* The account given him of the completeness of this animal's colour-change 

 seems to have been a little overdrawn. 



