Wrens in the Wood-pile. 169 



CHAPTER X. 



THE WOOD-PILE LIZARDS SHEDS AND RICKY ARD 



THE WITCHES' BRIAR INSECTS PLANTS, FLOWERS, 

 AND FRUIT. 



THE farmhouse at Wick has the gardens and orchard 

 already mentioned upon one side, and on the other 

 are the cart-houses, sheds, and rickyard. Between 

 these latter and the dwelling runs a broad roadway 

 for the wagons to enter and leave the fields, and on 

 its borders stands a great wood-pile. The fagots cut 

 in the winter from the hedges are here stacked up as 

 high as the roof of a cottage, and near by lies a heap 

 of ponderous logs waiting to be split for firewood. 

 From exposure to the weather the bark of the fagot- 

 sticks has turned black and is rapidly decaying, and 

 under it innumerable insects have made their homes. 

 For these, probably, the wrens visit the wood-pile 

 continually ; if in passing any one strikes the fagots 

 with a stick, a wren will generally fly out on the 

 opposite side. They creep like mice in between the 

 fagots there are numerous interstices and thus 

 sometimes pass right through a corner of the stack. 

 Sometimes a pole which has been lying by for a length 

 of time is found to be curiously chased, as it were, 

 all over the surface under the loose bark by creeping 

 things. They eat channels interweaving and winding 



