352 WILD SPORTS OF THE WEST. 



approach, and removing some hundred yards from the 

 gun. Some favourable inequality of surface has at last 

 enabled me to close with my wild quarry, and, not- 

 withstanding the keenness of his eye, got the wary 

 stranger eventually within range of shot. 



There grows in the valleys and water-courses which 

 are so frequent in the Achil and Ballycroy hills, that 

 large and shrub-like heather that reaches nearly to the 

 height of brushwood. Here, in the earlier season, 

 the woodcocks repose after their passage, and at times 

 the numbers found in these ravines are stated to be 

 extraordinary. With the first frost or snow they move 

 off to the interior, dropping as they go along in the 

 different covers, until a part of the flight reaches the very 

 centre of the kingdom. We met, during our day's fag, 

 about fifteen couple, out of which eight and a half were 

 brought to bag. To these we added three brace and a 

 half of grouse, and a brace of hares. When with these 

 were united snipes, plovers and rabbits, it is not too much 

 to say that our bags were most imposing, and produced 

 above fifty head of game. From our kind friends, 

 the Water Guards, we received a hospitable reception ; 

 and next morning were run across the bay in their galley, 

 and landed safely upon our own shores. 



The cock-shooting, to use my cousin's words, in the 

 west of Ireland is acknowledged to be very superior ; 

 and when the flight has been large, and the season is 

 sufficiently severe to drive the birds well to cover, there 

 is not, to a quick eye, more beautiful shooting in the 

 world. Some of the covers are copses of natural wood, 

 situated in the very centre of the mountains. Conse- 

 quently, when the snow falls, every woodcock for miles 

 around deserts the heath and seeks the nearest shelter. 



