192 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



chains of white eggs, out of which, if broken, the 

 little snakes issue only two or three inches in length. 

 The heat of the manure-heap acts as an incubator. 

 When it is wet and the hay cannot be touched, the 

 haymakers, there being nothing else for them to do, 

 are put to turn such heaps, and frequently find the 

 eggs of snakes. These creatures now and then get 

 inside farmhouses, whose floors are generally on a 

 level with the surface of the earth, or nearly so. They 

 have been found in the clock-case the old upright 

 eight-day clock, standing on the floor ; they come 

 after the frogs that enter at the doors always 

 wide open in summer and are supposed also to eat 

 crumbs. 



In the cellar there is sure to be a toad under the 

 barrels on the cool stone flags ; in the garden there 

 is another, purposely kept in the cucumber-frame to 

 protect the plant from being eaten by creeping things. 

 It is curious to notice that they both seem to flourish 

 equally well one in the coolest, the other in the hottest 

 place. A third may generally be found in the straw- 

 berry-bed. Strawberries are much eaten by insects 

 of many kinds ; so that the toad really does good 

 service in a garden. 



In winter, when snow is on the ground, a few larks 

 sometimes venture into the garden where anything 

 green yet shows above the white covering on the 

 patches. If the weather is severe, the moor-hen will 

 come up from the brook, though two fields distant, in 

 the night, and the marks of her feet may be traced 



