1 86 ON SURREY HILLS. 



himself, I have made one of the reptiles disgorge a 

 " dog-mouse," as the rustics call it, the large-headed 

 short-tailed field-vole or grass-mouse, which is as large 

 as a half-grown rat. The measurements of this little 

 nibbler, by the way, in all the natural history publi- 

 cations I have as yet seen, are far below the mark. 



Conditions of course vary in different localities. 

 "Wisdom is justified of her children" in every de- 

 partment of life, and the fitness of things is main- 

 tained. Where there are large field-voles and large 

 frogs, there will be large vipers and snakes to swallow 

 them. I do not know why the smooth snake the 

 so-called coronella is not mentioned in the book I 

 referred to first ; one which is well enough, so far as 

 it goes, and its illustrations also are accurate, but for 

 some reason or other its author has left that smooth 

 snake out in the cold, just as the gerfalcon was by 

 the writer of ' The Falconer's Favourites/ 



To those who keep falcons and hawks, the immense 

 fields through which we are passing would be fine 

 places for a flight when the crops have been cleared ; 

 for the stone-curlew, or thick-knee, frequents them, as 

 well as flocks of green plover, to say nothing of par- 

 tridges, both the common and the French variety. 



