WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 217 



Just in the very angle formed by the meeting hedges 

 the ditch becomes almost a fosse, so broad and deep ; 

 the sandy banks have slipped, and the rabbits have 

 excavated more, and over all the brambles have arched 

 thickly with a background of brake-fern. The flower 

 of the bramble is very beautiful a delicate, pink 

 bloom, succeeded by green berries, to ripen red, and 

 later black, under the sun. A larger kind are found 

 here and there the children call them dew-berries 

 or jew-berries indifferently. Some of the bramble 

 leaves linger on a dull green all through the winter. 



In the angle a narrow opening runs through be- 

 tween the two banks, which do not quite meet : it is 

 so overgrown with bramble and fern, convolvulus and 

 thorn, that unless the bushes were parted to look in no 

 one would suspect the existence of this green tunnel, 

 which on the other side opens on the ash copse, where 

 a shallow furrow (dry) joins it. This tunnel is the 

 favourite way and passage of the rabbits from the 

 copse out into the tempting pasturage of the meadow ; 

 through it, too, now and then, a fox creeps quietly. 

 Rabbit-holes drill the bank everywhere, but one near 

 this green by-way is noticeable because of its immense 

 size. 



It must measure eighteen inches or nearly in 

 diameter at the mouth ; nor does it diminish abruptly, 

 but continues almost as large a yard or more inside 

 the bank. Spaniels will get right into such a " bury," 

 till nothing but the tail can be seen, and, if permitted, 

 stay there and dig and scratch frantically. They 



