THE COMMON SNIPE. 
263 
several birds were sprung_, and yet it required some resolution to 
do mucli execution upon tliem_, 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 ofb 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 mueh 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 wisps 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 YarrelPs 
^ British Birds ^ it is remarked : — 
‘‘ The Rev. Richard Lubbock writes me from Norfolk, that these 
birds [snipes] breed there in considerable numbers, which, however. 
