218 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



out of reach except by a ladder, and safe from all beasts 

 of prey, and another place its nest on a low grassy 

 bank scarcely hidden by a plant of wild parsley, and 

 easily taken by the smallest boy ? At first it looks like 

 a great difference in intelligence, but probably each bird 

 acted as well as could be under the circumstances. Each 

 robin has to fight for his locality, and he has to make 

 the best of his territory ; if he trespassed on another 

 bird's premises he would be driven away. You must 

 build your house where you happen to possess a plot of 

 land. It is curious to see the male bird feeding the 

 female, not only while on the nest, but when she comes 

 away from it ; the female perches on a branch and 

 utters a little call, and the male brings her food. He was 

 feeding her the other evening on the bare boughs of a 

 fig tree some distance from the nest. The warmth of 

 the sun, although we could not feel it, must have pene- 

 trated into the earth some time since, for a slowworm 

 came forth on a mound for the first time on April 16. 

 He coiled up on the eastern side every morning for some 

 hours, but was never seen in the afternoon. His short, 

 thick body and unfinished tail, more like a punch or the 

 neck of a stumpy bottle, was turned in a loop, the head 

 nearly touching the tail, like a pair of sugar-tongs. Coming 

 out from the stitchwort and grasses, the spiders often 

 ran over his shining dark brown surface, something the 

 colour of glazed earthenware. A snake or an adder 

 would have begun to move away the moment any one 

 stopped to look at it ; but the slowworm takes no notice, 

 and hence it is often said to be blind. He seems to dis- 

 like any sharp noise, and is really fully aware of your 

 presence. Close by the mound, which stands in a corner 

 of the garden, there is a great bunch of blue comfrey, to 

 which the bees and humble-bees come in such numbers 



