HORSES AND HOUNDS. 39 1 



singular that I add, few of them ride well to hounds. 

 An impatience in the field, and the anxiety to be foremost 

 where all are forward, interferes constantly with 

 the dogs, and causes a pressure upon the pack, very 

 unfavourable to good hunting. Riding rather at the 

 field than to the hounds, is the prevailing error, Fences 

 are crossed which would be better evaded horses 

 unnecessarily distressed ; and I have seen a man 

 actually go out of his way to take a regular rasper when 

 he had a gap within thirty yards. 



Game in Mayo would be much more abundant than 

 it is were it not sadly thinned by irregular shooters, 

 and an infinity of vermin. To prevent the spoliations 

 of the former would be a difficult task as, from the 

 quantity of wild fowl that every winter brings to the 

 Western shores, a number of guerilla sportsmen are 

 employed or countenanced by the resident gentry ; 

 to whom it is too strong a temptation, when lying for 

 ducks, or stealing upon plovers, to discover a pack or 

 covey grouped upon the snow, and yet have sufficient 

 philosophy to keep the finger from the trigger. The 

 vermin, however, are the main cause of the scarcity 

 of game, and no means are taken to destroy these 

 marauders. From the eagle to the sparrow-hawk, 

 every variety abounds in the woods and mountains, 

 and every species of kite and crow that an ornithologist 

 would admire, and a sportsman abominate, infests the 

 Western counties. 



Of fallow deer, there is a large stock in the parks 

 throughout the province and buck-hunting has of 

 late seasons been getting into fashion on the plains. 

 I have already, in speaking of the red-deer, lamented 

 the prospect of their extinction. That event I look 



