THE COMMON SNIPE. 263 



several birds were sprung, and yet it required some resolution to 

 do much execution upon them, for no sooner was the gun about 

 to be directed at the first bird that caught the eye, than, right 

 and left, several others would screech off, and call attention from 

 it, so that making choice of the one to fire at ended in a 

 hurried shot, the result of which often was that all escaped. To 

 ensure success we had soon " to screw " our resolution to firing at 

 the first bird that sprang, and eventually many were killed : they 

 proved to be in fair condition. On the 13th of August, 1833, 

 a migratory flock was seen. On the 22nd or 23rd of August, 

 1836, a dog-breaker met with great numbers of snipes on a 

 part of the mountain- top near Belfast, that from want of moisture 

 is ill-suited to the species, and where I have never, even when 

 in the most favourable state for them, seen more than a single 

 bird : in this instance they were, I conceive, merely resting from 

 their flight. 



The following notes bear on this subject. In the ' Wild Sports 

 of the West/ the author observes : — 



" I have seen much of snipe-shooting in many parts of Ireland, but 

 I could not have imagined that the number of these exquisite birds 

 could be found within the same space that one particular marsh which 

 bounds the rabbit-banks produced. Independently of a quantity of 

 detached birds, several toispa sprang wildly, as they always do ; and I 

 have no doubt that this fen had been their temporary resting-place 

 after their autumnal migration from the north. We were the more 

 inclined to this opinion, from finding many of the birds we killed 

 extremely lean ; while others that sprang singly were in admirable con- 

 dition. Achil is a natural resting-place for migratory birds : and hence 

 I can well believe the accounts given by the islanders, of the immense 

 numbers of woodcocks and snipes which are here found, in their transit 

 from a high latitude to a more genial climate." — P. 298, edit. 1838. 



The period of the year is not mentioned in connexion with the 

 circumstance in the ' Wild Sports of the West •' but in YarrelTs 

 ' British Birds ' it is remarked : — 



" The Rev. Richard Lubbock writes mc from Norfolk, that these 

 birds [snipes] breed there in considerable numbers, which, however, 



