Ant-hills. 273 



lifted again. If 3'ou pass on a short distance and 

 make no effort to find the nest, they recover confi- 

 dence and descend. When the peewit alights lie 

 runs along a few yards rapidly, as if carried by the 

 impetus. He is a handsome bird, with a well-marked 

 crest. 



The other locality to which I have referred was a 

 wide open field full of ant-hills. There must have 

 been eight or ten acres of these hills. They rose 

 about eighteen inches or two feet, of a conical shape, 

 and overgrown by turf, like thousands of miniature 

 extinct volcanoes. They were so near together that 

 it was easy to pass twenty or thirt}' yards without 

 once touching the proper surface of the ground, by 

 springing from one ant-hill to the other. Thick 

 bunches of rushes grew between, and innumerable 

 thistles flourished, and here and there scattered haw- 

 tliorn bushes stood. It was a favorite place with 

 the finches ; the hawthorn bushes alwaj's had nests 

 in them. Thyme grew luxuriantlv on the ground 

 between the nests and on the ant-hills. AVild thyme 

 and ants are often found together, as on the Downs. 

 How many millions of ants must have been needed 

 to raise these hillocks ! and what still more incalcu- 

 lable numbers must have lived in them ! A wilder 

 spot could scarcely have been imagined, though situ- 

 ate between rich meadow and ploughed lands. 



There was always a cove}' of partridges about the 

 field ; but they could not have had such a feast of 

 eggs as would naturally- be supposed, because in the 

 course of time a crust of turf had grown over the 

 ant-hills. The temporary hills of loose earth thrown 

 up every summer by the sides of the fields, w^here 

 18 



