WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 171 



the cool parlour, or in the garden under the shade of 

 the trees, you may hear him almost every morning in 

 the meadows that come right up to the orchard hedge. 

 That hedge is his favourite approach to the garden : 

 he flies to it first, and gradually works his way along 

 under cover till nearer the cultivated beds. Both 

 blackbird and thrush are particularly fond of visiting 

 a patch of cabbages in a shady, quiet corner : there 

 are generally two or three there after the worms and 

 caterpillars, and so forth. 



The thrushes build in the garden in several places, 

 especially in an ivy-hidden arbour a wooden frame 

 completely covered with ivy and creeping flowers. 

 Close by is a thick box-hedge, six feet high and nearly 

 as much through, and behind this is a low, thatched 

 tool-house, where spades, moletraps, scythes, reaping- 

 hooks, and other implements are kept. Here lies a 

 sarsen-stone, hard as iron, about a foot thick, the top 

 of which chances to be smooth and level. This is 

 the thrush's favourite anvil. 



He searches about under the ivy, under which the 

 snails hide in their shells in the heat of the day, and 

 brings them forth into the light. The shell is too 

 large for his beak to hold it pincer-fashion, but at the 

 entrance the snail's doorway he can thrust his bill 

 in, and woe then to the miserable occupant ! With a 

 hop and flutter the thrush mounts the stone anvil, 

 and there destroys his victim in workmanlike style. 

 Up goes his head, lifting the snail high in the air, and 

 then, smash ! the shell comes down on the stone with 



