THE GREAT SNIPE. 259 



before seen, though he had been present at the death of many 

 hundred snipes in the north of Ireland. A snipe was shot near 

 Belfast by a sporting friend, about the 1st of November, 1837, 

 that from size and colour he at first sight thought to be a 

 woodcock : — a few winters previously he had killed a similar bird. 

 In May 1842, Lieut. Kempe, H.N. — of the Coast Guard Service 

 — then stationed at Cushendun, describing the species admirably, 

 assured me that he had shot three examples of it, one in England 

 and two in the south of Ireland. Mr. R. Davis, jun., of Clonmel, 

 who, like myself, has not met with Irish specimens of the bird, is 

 of opinion that it has occurred in a few instances in his neigh- 

 bourhood — four or five, in that number of years — and mentions 

 what he believes to be this species, being called by sportsmen the 

 Solitary, and the Silent Snipe. On February the 2nd, 1837, he 

 remarked — " A friend of mine spent half a day, about a month 

 since, in pursuit of one, but could not get a shot at it." 



T. W. Warren, Esq., of Dublin, informed me, on November 

 the 17th, 1841, that the first he had seen of these snipes 

 was then in course of being preserved by Mr. Glennon. It was 

 shot a few days before in the county of Kildare. On my calling 

 the attention of Mr. R. Ball to it, he replied, that he too con- 

 sidered the bird to be Scolopax major, that " it weighs eight 

 ounces, is barred on the belly, and wants the lumbar plumes of 

 sharp feathers possessed by the common and the jack snipe." 

 Through the same means, I heard of another of these birds, that 

 was shot on the 6th of December, 1845, in the county of 

 Leitrim, by an officer of the 32nd regiment, and sent in a fresh 

 state to the taxidermist just named. The attention of the gentle- 

 man mentioned in the latter instance being called to this specimen, 

 he believed it to be S. major, adding that : — " One foot was shot 

 away, and the tarsus of the other so injured that measurement 

 was out of the question ; the wing from the carpal joint is rather 

 more than 5| inches ; the bill 2| inches ; middle toe and nail 

 If inches." 



In November 1836, Captain (now Major) T. Walker, of Bel- 

 mont, Wexford, wrote to me respecting the occasional occurrence 



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