STONE-DWELLERS 279 



with stone-turning. Once we saw a labourer lift a 

 stone and drop it suddenly with white face, while 

 he called out, " A gurt snake ! " We went to look, 

 and found nothing but a toad squatting in a hollow 

 that just fitted her body, and was just so deep that 

 the stone could not crush her when it was replaced. 

 On another day we found what we scarcely appre- 

 ciated at the time, and what we have vainly looked 

 for again ever since. It was a big black amphibian 

 that, when we touched it, shed its tail, and the tail 

 kicked and kicked for hours after whenever we 

 touched it with a stick or threw a crumb of earth 

 on it. Newts of every kind are found under stones, 

 or, better still, under fallen posts. The triton is big 

 and black, his orange breast not counting for much 

 when he is on land. But the triton has not a brittle 

 tail, so our big black newt or salamander remains 

 unidentified. 



The lifting of a stone is the short cut to the 

 dwelling-place of nearly everything that burrows. If 

 the stone is large enough you may find a fox's earth 

 beneath it, or it may cover the viper in its winter 

 sleep, or dormant queen-wasps. Every boy knows 

 that there is no need to dig for worms when there 

 are plenty of stones about, and the soil and weather 

 are not too dry. So, long ago, we found worms' 

 eggs there, and many other things in the embryo 

 stage that it was hard to identify. Another memory 

 of non-digging excavation that cannot be repeated 

 was the finding of a new ants' nest in the branches 

 of a box edging. A suspicion of mould peeping 

 out through the leaves tempted us to open the stiff 

 twigs, and there was the whole ant city. Not only 



