A LIFE-AND-DEATH STRUGGLE. 



no sooner does that slimy soul poke his 

 nose above the ground than the thrush is 

 upon him, quick and deadly as lightning. 

 In one second the creature feels himself 

 seized by one of his scaly rings, held fast 

 in an iron vice, and slowly chewed piece- 

 meal with the utmost deliberation. He 

 wriggles and squirms, but all in vain ; the 

 thrush munches calmly on, now with this 

 side of his bill, now that, drawing the worm 

 ring by ring from the soil to which he 

 desperately clings, and enjoying him as he 

 goes with most evident gusto. 



Both are intruders here. When first we 

 came to our hill-top there were no thrushes 

 and no earth-worms, no house-martins and 

 no sparrows. But the building of one 

 simple red-tiled cottage set up endless 

 changes in the fauna and flora. A whole 

 revolution was inaugurated over a realm 

 of three acres. The house-martins were 

 the first to come ; they settled in before 

 us. Ancestral instinct has taught them to 

 -155 



