REPTILES ON SUMMER RICKS. 81 



projection of any kind whatever ; hay is slippery, and the 

 rick is, of course, too large for the snake to encircle it. 

 Yet there they are commonly found, to the intense alarm 

 of the labouring women, who never can get over their 

 dislike of snakes, though they see them so frequently. 

 The only way I can imagine by which they climb up is 

 by means of the holes, or galleries, used by field-mice. 

 In summer ricks there are sometimes many mice, and in 

 pursuit of these the snake may find its way up through 

 their ' runs.' Toads are also occasionally found on these 

 ricks, and it is not exactly clear how they get there either; 

 but their object is plain i.e. the insects which swarm on 

 the hay. 



The thick hedgerows of these woodland meads are 

 full of trees, and others stand out in groups in the grass, 

 some of them hollow. Elms often become hollow, and so 

 do oaks ; the latter have such large cavities sometimes 

 that one or more persons may easily crouch therein. 

 This is speaking of an ordinary sized tree ; there are 

 many instances of patriarchs of the forest within whose 

 capacious trunks a dozen might stand uprigrjt. 



These hollow trees, according to woodcraft, ought to 

 come down by the axe without further loss of time. Yet 

 it is fortunate that we are not all of us, even in this 

 prosaic age, imbued with the stern utilitarian spirit ; for 

 a decaying tree is perhaps more interesting than one in 



full vigour of growth. The starlings make their nests in 



G 



