HEATHLANDS 105 



closely compacted, was fibrous, and a stick could be 

 easily thrust into it, exposing the eggs. No sooner was 

 such an opening made, and the stick withdrawn from 

 the gap, than the ants swarmed into it, falling headlong 

 over upon each other, and filling the bottom with their 

 struggling bodies. Upon leaving the spot, to follow the 

 footpath, I stamped my feet to shake down any stray 

 insects, and then took off my coat and gave it a thorough 

 shaking. 



Immense ant-hills are often depicted in the illustra- 

 tions to tropical travels, but this great pile, which certainly 

 contained more than a cartload, was within a few miles 

 of Hyde Park Corner. From nests like this large quan- 

 tities of eggs are obtained for feeding the partridges 

 hatched from the eggs collected by mowers and pur- 

 chased by keepers. Part of the nest being laid bare 

 with any tool, the eggs are hastily taken out in masses 

 and thrown into a sack. Some think that ant's eggs, 

 although so favourite a food, are not always the most 

 advantageous. Birds which have been fed freely on these 

 eggs become fastidious, and do not care for much else, 

 so that if the supply fails they fall off in condition. If 

 there are sufficient eggs to last the season, then a few 

 every day produce the best effect ; if not they had better 

 not have a feast followed by a fast. 



The sense of having a roof overhead is felt in walking 

 through a forest of firs like this, because the branches 

 are all at the top of the trunks. The stems rise to the 

 same height, and then the dark foliage spreading forms 

 a roof. As they are not very near together the eye can 

 see some distance between them, and as there is hardly 

 any underwood or bushes nothing higher than the fern 

 there is a space open and unfilled between the ground 

 and the roof so far above. 



