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. 



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