WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 239 



invisible during the sunshine, hiding so carefully as to 

 be rarely found, when the dew begins to gather thickly 

 on the grass and the shades deepen they issue forth, 

 and if you remain quite still show no fear at all. While 

 waiting in a dry ditch I have often had a hedgehog 

 come rustling slightly along the bottom till he reached 

 my boot ; then he would go up the " shore " of the 

 ditch out among the grass, hunting for beetles and 

 the creeping things which he likes most. 



In some places they are numerous ; one or two 

 other meadows on the farm beside the home field 

 are favourite haunts of theirs, and five or six may be 

 found out feeding within a short distance. When all 

 is still they move rapidly through the grass quite a 

 run ; much quicker than they appear capable of mov- 

 ing. The plough lads, if they find one, carry it to a 

 pond, knowing that nothing but water will make it 

 unroll voluntarily no knocks or kicks ; but the mo- 

 ment it touches the water it uncoils. Now and then 

 a labourer will cook a hedgehog and eat it ; some of 

 them will eat a full-grown rook at any time they chance 

 to shoot it, notwithstanding the bitter flavour of the 

 bird, only taking out a part of the back. Those who 

 have had some association with the gipsies or semi- 

 gipsies seem most addicted to this kind of food. 



In the opposite direction to the ash copse, and about 

 half a mile north of Wick farmhouse, there rises above 

 the oak and ash trees what looks like the topmast and 

 yard of a ship lying at anchor or in dock, the hull 

 hidden by the branches. It is the top of an immensely 



