128 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



wild-ducks frequently adds a peculiar charm to 

 the pursuit; and as in my humble opinion the 

 character of a day's shooting depends rather 

 upon the variety of the spoil than upon the 

 numbers of the slain, I will ask my reader to 

 accompany me for half an hour to the scenes 

 of my boyhood in the West of Ireland, where, 

 in bygone and better days, I made my first 

 acquaintance with the ' hen of the heath.'* 



Many years have elapsed since, with a middle- 

 aged relative, a cool and experienced yet an 

 ardent sportsman, I undertook an expedition 

 to ' the mountains ;' a wild tract of consider- 

 able extent in the north-western portion of 

 the island, which had been carefully preserved 

 under the management of an intelligent Scotch 

 keeper, who, by the establishment of local 

 watchers and a judicious reduction of predatory 

 animals among which the hooded or ' scaul 

 crow ' occupied his chief attention had succeed- 

 ed in getting up a fair head of grouse and hares, 

 and at the same time ensuring to the different 

 species of wading and swimming birds, which 

 haunted the streams and lakes of this remote dis- 

 trict, that quietude and repose which are so im- 

 portant to the success of the wild fowl shooter. 



* ' Cark na fre/ or ( hen of the heath/ the name by which 

 the red grouse is known in the remote parts of Connaught. 



