BRITISH GAME-BIRDS. 207 



tures ; there is the traditional folk-lore, and there 

 are woodland laws, fully recognised by all classes. 

 These have not the least bearing on the game-laws, 

 but they are equally strict, and must be acted upon. 

 Even if some did feel disposed to break them, they 

 could not do it unless they were willing to be " cut " 

 by all wood dwellers. 



Two very different kinds of ant-hills supply the 

 eggs or ant-pupae to the young of game-birds, and 

 of partridges in particular. First, there are the 

 common emmet - heaps, or ant - hills, which are 

 scattered all over the land ; go where you will, 

 you will find them. These the birds scratch and 

 break up, picking out the eggs as they fall from 

 the light soil of the heaps; the partridges work 

 them easily. But the ant-eggs proper I am 

 writing now from the game - preserving point of 

 view come from the nests or heaps of the great 

 wood-ants, either the black or the red ants. These 

 are mounds of fir-needles, being in many instances 

 as large at the bottom in circumference as a 

 waggon - wheel, and from two to three feet in 

 height even larger where they are very old ones. 

 They are found in fir-woods, on the warm sunny 



