DEPARTURE FROM CONNAUGHT. 369 



admit its being traversed by the lightest foot, but generally 

 it was broken into tammocks, which a bold and prac- 

 tised shooter might pass with little difficulty. We 

 took opposite sides, and consequently few birds sprang 

 without affording one or the other of the guns a fair 

 shot. The number of snipes that flushed in this fen 

 went far beyond my expectation, though considerably 

 excited ; and, besides, we met at least fifteen couple 

 of that sweet little duck, the Teal. We followed the 

 morass to its extremity, and then returned and our 

 beat homewards was pleasanter, and, so far as the game- 

 bags went, more profitable than the first range. 



Out of seventy head, we reckoned one woodcock and 

 a brace of old stagers that we found among the heathy 

 banks bordering the fen. We shot six couple of teal ; 

 and, with one exception, the remainder of the count 

 were snipes, of which at least a fourth were jacks. In 

 the most impassable section of the morass, old York 

 pointed with more than customary steadiness ; and, 

 " it might be fancy," actually looked round with peculiar 

 expression, as if he would intimate that no common 

 customer was before him ! I got within twenty yards 

 and encouraged the old setter to go in ; but he turned 

 his grizzled and intelligent eyes to mine, and wagged 

 his tail as if he would have said, " Lord ! you don't 

 know what I have here." A tuft of earth flung by 

 one of the aides-de-camp, obliged the skulker to get up, 

 and to our general surprise a fine bittern arose. I 

 knocked him over, but though he came down with a 

 broken wing and wounded leg, he kept the old dog at 

 bay until my companion floundered through the swamp 

 and secured him. On this exploit I plumed myself, 

 for bitterns are here extremely scarce, and in Ballycroy 

 they are seldom heard or found. 



