GAME NOTES AND FOLK-LORE. 191 



Deer Land. To get to the corn they have to 

 pass through hedges, and their tracks are 

 easily found on the mounds. Wires are set 

 in these creeps, and the pheasants are caught 

 as they go out to feed. 



Sometimes in winter wires for pheasants 

 are set round corn-ricks, to which the birds 

 resort. All poaching is founded on the habits 

 of wild creatures. Partridges in winter also 

 resort to corn-ricks, and are occasionally shot 

 there by poachers. Both pheasants and par- 

 tridges are fond of ants' eggs. In covers the 

 large wood-ants, which are about half an 

 inch long, make immense nests of leaves and 

 fibres, quite mounds, and to these the young- 

 pheasants go, and take as many eggs as they 

 can. The ants often bite them severely ; 

 the pheasant jumps as the ant bites. Where 

 partridges are bred in great numbers the 

 keepers seek out the nests of the meadow- 

 ant, go round with a cart, and dig up the 

 nests, earth and all, and throw them into 



