172 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



all the force he can use. About two such blows break 

 the shell, and he then coolly chips the fragments off as 

 you might from an egg, and makes very few mouth- 

 fuls of the contents. On the stone and round about 

 it lie the fragments of many such shells relics of 

 former feasts. Sometimes he will do this close to the 

 bay-window if all is quiet using the stone flags for 

 an anvil, if he chances to find a snail hard by ; but 

 he prefers the recess behind the box-hedge. The 

 thrushes seem half-domesticated here ; they are tame, 

 too, in the hedges, and will sit and sing on a bough 

 overhead without ' fear while you wait for a rabbit 

 on the bank beneath. 



