230 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



the plant has drained. Round the prickly dome- 

 shaped head, as the summer advances, two circles of 

 violet-hued flowers push out from cells defended by 

 the spines, so that, seen protruding above the hedge, 

 it resembles a tiara a green circle at the bottom of 

 the dome, and two circles of gems above. 



Some of the grasses growing by the hedge are not 

 to be handled carelessly, the edge of the long blade 

 cutting like a lancet ; the awn-like seeds of others, 

 if they should chance to get into the mouth, as hap- 

 pens occasionally to the haymakers, work down to- 

 wards the throat, the attempt to get rid of them causing 

 a creeping motion the opposite way. This is owing 

 to the awns all slanting in one direction. 



On the sultry afternoons of the latter part of the 

 summer the hedge is all but silent. Waiting in the 

 gateway there is no sound for half an hour at a time, 

 no call or merry song in the branches, nothing but the 

 buzz of flies. The birds are quiet, or nearly so ; they 

 slip about so noiselessly that it is difficult to observe 

 them, so that many perhaps migrate before it is sus- 

 pected, and others stay on when thought to be gone. 

 In the grass the grasshoppers make their hiss, and 

 towards evening the yellowhammers utter a few 

 notes ; but while the corn is being reaped the meadows 

 are all but still. 



