258 
SCOLOPACID^. 
mggans (the yellow flag, Iris pseudaconis), that the flight was 
peculiar, the bird being inclined to fly round the place from which 
it was sprung, and to alight again about the same spot, even after 
being fired at.* Since the fields were drained — nearly fifty years 
ago — and the ‘'‘'saggans,^^ of which there were some acres, extirpated, 
he has not met with one, nor did he, though shooting a great 
deal every season since that period until the last two or three 
years, see the species in other localities : he describes the birds 
when sprung as looking like small woodcocks in size. In the 
year 1831, a lady, well acquainted with our most critical species 
of birds, assured me that she had seen a great snipe which had 
been killed in the county of Meath. In the ^ Wild Sports of the 
West,^ the following passage appears, with reference to the island 
of Achil. ^‘^We crossed the bent-banks, occasionally knocking a 
rabbit over as we went along, and wheeled to the westward to 
skirt the base of Sleive More. We had not proceeded far, before 
an islander, who was herding cows, told us that there was a 
croivour keogh leg — a little woodcock — in the next ravine. We 
accordingly put a setter in, and were gratified with a steady point 
in the place the herdsman had intimated. The bird sprang, and 
was knocked over by my companion, when the little woodcock 
proved to be a double snipe. These birds are extremely scarce 
here, and a few couple only are seen during a ■jj^hole season by 
persons most conversant in traversing the bogs,^'’ p. 299, ed. 1838. 
When in Achil in June 1834, I particularly inquired of Lieut. 
Reynolds, R.N., of the Coast Guard Service — an ardent and 
indefatigable sportsman — respecting this snipe ; but he had never 
seen one in the island. The bird was known to him from his 
having once or twice shot it in Wales. 
A dog-breaker, who was in the habit of accompanying a relative 
of mine when snipe-shooting, told me of a ‘’‘‘woodcock-snipe^"’ which 
was killed by my friend in the season of 1834-35, in the county of 
Antrim, near Belfast : he described it as having been larger than 
the common species, and having the belly barred all over. It 
particularly attracted his attention as a bird which he had not 
* I have occasionally remarked the common snipe to do the same. 
