218 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



would sometimes, perhaps, succeed in reaching the 

 prey were it not for the roots of thorn bushes or 

 trees which cross the holes here and there like bars; 

 these they cannot scratch through, but will bite and 

 tear with their teeth coming out now and then to 

 breathe and shake the sand from their muzzles, then 

 back again with a whine of eager excitement, till 

 presently, in sheer exhaustion, they lie down at the 

 mouth of the cave and pant. This is not allowed if 

 it is known ; but spaniels now and then steal away 

 privately, and so frequently make for a hole like 

 this that when their absence is discovered it is the 

 first place visited in search of them. The mingled 

 patience and excitement, the vast labour they will 

 undergo, the quantity of sand they will throw out, 

 the whine it is not a bark expressing intense desire, 

 prove how deep is the hunting instinct in the dog. 



Even if the burrows be ferreted, in a few weeks 

 this great hole shows signs of fresh inhabitants ; and 

 such a specially enlarged entrance may be found 

 somewhere in most of the banks frequented by rabbits. 

 Why do they make an aperture so many times larger 

 than they can possibly require ? It may be a kind 

 of ancestral hall, the favourite cave of the first settlers 

 here, clung to by their descendants. Within, per- 

 haps three, or even more, tunnels branch off from it. 

 So busy are they, and so occupied when excavating 

 a fresh passage, that sometimes when waiting quietly 

 on a bank you may see the miner at work. The sand 

 pours out as he casts it behind him with his hinder 





