REPTILES ON SUMMER RICKS. 8i 



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 upright. 



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 



