snipe grass and loam of bogs

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moonlike

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Hi
Around us the farmland of North Kerry stretched from Cnoc on Oir down to the Atlantic Ocean at Ballybunnion, a wide stretch of land where the pasture is interspersed with snipe grass and the dark loam of bogs.

In the above sentence 'snipe grass' is a kind of grass? I checked it in the dictionary and I found a kind of bird. However, here it shouldn't mean so.
About the dark loam of bogs, loam: high quality soil, bog: wetland. I can't get it together. Could you please help me?

Thanks a lot.

P.S. I know I should ask just one question in a post but sorry both questions were in a sentence. I apologize for not following the norms.
 

SoothingDave

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I would imagine as well that "snipe grass" is a type of grass. Yes, "snipe" is a bird. But "snipe" is used here as an adjective, describing the type of grass. Perhaps the birds prefer this type of grass and can be found there, which is why it was named like that.

As for the other, it seems to me that a bog would have excellent, rich soil.
 

BobK

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:up: .... that iss a peat bog isn't itself loam, but the longer it's been peat the more likely it is to have enriched (and darkened) the surrounding loam.

b

PS I wonder if the snipe is related to the shrike. If so, it might prefer 'snipe grass' (whatever that is) for trussing up its kills. Here's a quote from that page:
These little birds with such powerful beaks can catch and eat mice, small snakes, grasshoppers and other insects. That's part of the reason why they are called butcherbirds. The other part is how they store their leftovers. When [BK: they are] full and want nothing else to eat they will still catch food thinking to eat it later. Here is the strangest part of their eating habits. The shrike will take a cicada, large grasshopper or other food particle and impale it on a thorn or a barb on the barbed wire fence
 
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konungursvia

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Sounds like a witches' recipe including frogs' tails and eyeballs.
 
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