WINTER SHOOTING. 34I 



But Other, and no less certain, tokens harbinger the 

 wild season that has arrived. Yesterday a six-months' 

 puppy, who crept after me across the adjoining paddocks, 

 stopped in a rushy field. Suspecting that he had a 

 hare before him, I passed on to push her from the form : 

 I was mistaken — 2. wisp* of snipes, possibly thirty in 

 number, sprang, and scattering in all directions, pitched 

 loosely over the adjoining bogs. To-day I saw a flock 

 of barnacles ;f and the herdsman on the sand-banks 

 apprises us of the first appearance of a Crowour Keough.X 

 This is the earliest wood-cock announced, but my kins- 

 man has no doubt but the flight^ has fallen in Achil : 

 and we shall cross in a few days, if the weather answers, 

 and try Slieve More, he says, with excellent success. 



I had been some hours in bed, when I was awakened 

 by a quarrelling among the dogs, which I overheard 

 the keeper settling with the whip. I remained, and it 

 is rather an unusual thing with me, a long time awake. 

 An hour passed, all was again in deep repose, and I, too, 

 was sinking into sleep, when a strange and unaccount- 

 able noise roused me. It seemed to be at first faint and 

 distant, but momently increasing, grew louder and more 

 distinct, until it passed, to all appearance, directly above 

 my head. The sounds were wild and musical — varied 



* Wisp, in sporting parlance, means a flock of snipes. 



t The barnacle is a waterfowl weighing about five pounds, and 

 measuring more than two feet in length. 



X Why this title, literally meaning " the blind cock," should be 

 conferred by the peasantry of Ballycroy on a bird so remarkable for 

 the extraordinary quickness of his vision, is a paradox. Such is the 

 known acuteness of the woodcock's vision, that the cover -shooter 

 chooses a masked position, or the Crowour Keough would seldom 

 come within range of the gun. 



§ Flight is the term used to describe a flock of woodcocks, as they 

 arrive in this country, in their annual migration from the north of 

 Europe. 



