Sport and Wild Life in Ireland
Irish Bogs. By 3. W. Seigne. (Longman, Green and Co.
THE author of this delightful book loves Ireland with a sane, clear-sighted love. He sees what sport she can offer and sees the deficiencies, too, but hopes for better days when game may be better preserved. He sets out chapter by chapter a store of useful facts, advice, experience in shooting, fishing, and hunting. But he is a romantic sportsman with an eye always open for the beauties and humours of the scenery and the people. In Connemara he notices the wild flowers, Saint Dabeoc's Heath, London Pride, and the true maidenhair. He notes the wonderful colours of a bog in sunshine, and by the banks of the Awbeg finds time to recall Spenser's life there and his appreciation of a good trout stream.
Irish Bogs should persuade many sportsmen to come to Ireland, and those who know it already will love to compare notes mentally with the author. It is a sportsman's book, a practical guide by one who lives in the Free State and knows all about it.
The admirable illustrations which accompany the letter- press increase the value of the book to anyone who loves nature, and the author is one who can love birds as well as shoot them. He deplores the passing of the bittern. " While cross- ing a Connemara bog in June 1926, I got a brief glimpse through the rushes of a bittern. Years ago these interesting birds were common enough in Irish bogs, and Goldsmith was familiar with the bird's solitary habits and peculiar booming note. But it has shared the fate of other rare birds at the hands of ' the lout with a gun,' and hardly a year passes without several instances being reported of the bittern trying to return to her bogs only to be promptly shot. One was shot in Co. Kerry as recently as February, 1928."
The author notes too the diminution of the red squirrel in Ireland. I can remember their coming to take nuts from a windowsill in a house outside the Phcenix Park, Dublin, and a free fight that ensued in the dining-room between two squirrels. But that was years ago, and I have not seen a squirrel in many days of wandering in Kerry and Donegal and in the West.
This is a comforting book to any dweller in the Free State, for it assures the reader that Ireland still has the things that make life most blessed to many people—beauty, sport, and fun.
Previous page
