46 Wild Life in a Southern County 



in a second or two runs swiftly to cover, using every little 

 hollow of the ground skilfully for concealment on the way, 

 like a practised skirmisher. The ants' nests, which are so 

 attractive to partridges, are found in great numbers along 

 the edge of the cornfields, being usually made on ground 

 that is seldom disturbed. The low mounds that border 

 the green track are populous with ants, whose nests are 

 scattered thickly on these banks, as also beside the paths 

 and waggon-tracks that traverse the fields and are not 

 torn up by the plough. Any beaten track such as this old 

 path, however green, is generally free from them on its 

 surface : ants avoid placing their nests where they may be 

 trampled upon. This may often be noticed in gardens : 

 there are nests at and under the edge of the paths, but 

 none where people walk. It is these nests in the banks 

 and mounds which draw the partridges so frequently from 

 the middle of the fields to the edges where they can be 

 seen; they will come even to the banks of frequented 

 roads for the eggs of which they are so fond. 



Now that their courting-time is over, the larks do not 

 sing so continuously. Later on, when the ears of wheat 

 are ripe and the reapers are sharpening their sickles, if 

 you walk here, with the corn on either hand, every ten or 

 twenty yards a cloud of sparrows and small birds will rise 

 from it, literally hiding the hawthorn bush on which they 

 settle, so that the green tree looks brown. Wait a little 

 while, and with defiant chirps back they go, disappearing 

 in the wheat. 



The sparrows will sometimes nutter at the top of the 

 stalk, hovering for a few moments in one spot, as if trying 

 to perch on the ears; then, grasping one with their claws, 

 they sink with it and bear it to the ground, where they cau 

 revel at their leisure. A place where a hailstorm or heavy rain 



