Note 422 — Chapter LIII

There is a valuable paper on hawks and hounds in Ireland by Mr. J. P. Prendergast in vol. ii. of the Irish Arch. Journal, p. 144. Perrott to Walsingham, Oct. 25, 1585; Sir S. Bagenal to Cecil, MS. Hatfield, Nov. 1, 1602. In the second edition (1888) of Dalziel’s British Dogs there is a very full dissertation on the Irish wolf-hound. In Payne’s Brief Description of Ireland, 1590, we read that a red-deer skinned could be had for 2s. 6d., twelve quails for 3d., twelve woodcocks for 4d., and all other fowl rateably. The abundance of corncrakes is mentioned by both Moryson and Payne, and the latter says grouse (heathcock) were plentiful. Sixteen landrails (or corncrakes) were shot at Colebrooke in Fermanagh on one September day in 1884.