446 APPENDIX. 



annually for the last six or seven years, since the present proprietor 

 came into possession of the place. The following paragraph appeared in 

 the 'Northern Whig ' newspaper of May 21, 1850 : — 



" On the morning of the 18th inst., Francis Shaw, a man employed 

 by Colonel Stewart to trap rabbits in his demesne of Killymoon, saw 

 an old woodcock, with a brood of young ones, in one of the woods. 

 He caught two and brought them to the mansion, where they remained 

 for some time, until Colonel Stewart ordered them to be taken back to 

 the place where they were caught. They could not fly, but were, 

 nevertheless, of a good size, the head and biU of each being nearly as 

 large as those of old birds. Shaw stated that he had seen seven or 

 eight of these young birds. — Another man employed about the demesne 

 saw five young ones the same day. Several old woodcocks were seen in 

 the woods about Killymoon during the week. Young woodcocks were 

 found there once before within the last twenty years." 



The same newspaper of Tuesday the 9th of July, 1850, contained 

 this paragraph : — 



" On Saturday last, as a man was mowing gi'ass, in a very quiet spot 

 not far from Cookstown, he flushed a woodcock. On examining the 

 spot whence the bird rose, he discovered its nest, with four eggs in it. 

 The bird did not return to the nest, which was formed of di-y leaves, 

 green moss, and a little withered grass." ^ 



Both these localities are in the county of Tyrone. 



In some parts of Ireland, woodcocks were unusually plentiful at the 

 end of December 1849, and in January 1850. At the former period a 

 number were killed at Knappan (county Antrim), during severe frost 

 and snow ; the stomachs of five of these birds came under my examina- 

 tion ; four of them were filled with fibrous vegetable matter, and a 

 number of minute coleopterous insects ; the fifth was filled with the re- 

 mains of Coleoptera, with the exception of two or three white larvae : — 

 they were the fattest birds I ever saw. The chief dealer in game, at 

 Belfast, received thirteen couple from a person living near Glenarra, in 

 the same neighbourhood in the first week of January, and on the 9th of 

 the month, fifteen couple, all of which had been shot. On the 1 7th, 18th, 

 and 19th of January (frost and snow), he received sixty couple, many 

 of them killed in the vicinity of Belfast ; he had never before known 

 them to be so plentiful. In the covers at Stuart Hall (county Tyrone), 

 eleven brace were shot one day early in the month during frost and 



