SCOLOPACJLD^E. 



fluctuate greatly in different years, and are never sufficient to account 

 for the number which, sometimes appear in August, in which month as 

 many snipes may sometimes be killed as at any time of the year." — 

 Vol. ii. p. 604. 



Towards the month of October, the birds that remain with us 

 arrive from the north.* They are said to winter in Tory Island, 

 off Donegal, though not to breed there. t They are found indeed 

 generally at that season, on petty islets around the coast. 



Snipe-sJwoting . — Daily Mights. — The shooting of snipes, as 

 such, is generally considered inferior sport to that of other birds 

 which claim the sportsman's attention, but their abundance in 

 Ireland greatly exceeding that of the others, is considered a 

 kind of equivalent, and, accordingly, they are very eagerly 

 sought after. 



The " twisting " flight of the snipe, which generally proceeds 

 against the wind, leads persons to believe that it is the most 

 difficult of birds to shoot ; but this is very much a matter 

 of practice. A sportsman, accustomed to snipe-shooting, will 

 kill as many of these birds at a certain number of shots as of any 

 others; J indeed, I remember one who, although from practice 

 a capital " snipe shot/'' on going, for the first time, in pursuit of 

 partridges, could not hit one of them. Mr. Poole remarks his 



* Mr. St. John has ohserved with respect to the month of October in Moray- 

 shire : — " Immediately on the retiring of a flood in the river [Findhorn], great 

 numbers of snipes are seen on the mud and refuse left by the water, feeding busily. 

 Where they come from it is difficult to say, as at this season, except on those occa- 

 sions, we have no great abundance of these birds."* In Northumberland, according 

 to Mr. Selby, they arrive in the greatest number early in November. The history 

 of the snipe given by the latter author is full and admirable. 



I may here remark (though rather out of place) that tbe observations of Mr. St. 

 John would apply to Ireland throughout the later portion of autumn and the entire 

 winter. Persons living in the neighbourhood of rivers and lakes know with certainty 

 when and how long, according to the locality, they will obtain snipes after the laud 

 nas been flooded. In some places the flood subsides so rapidly, that these birds will 

 only be met with for one day, but in others, whence the water retires slowly and leaves 

 a great extent of residuum, they may be found for upwards of a week. 



t Mr. G. C. Hyndman. 



\ I have been told of thirty-two birds having been killed by a northern marquis 

 at that number of successive shots. 



* 'Tour in Sutherland,' &c, vol. ii. p. 8. 



