150 Wild Lifein a Southern County. 
will be sure to be plenty of insects settling on the 
grass round the cows, and every now and then they 
tear up the herbage by the roots and expose creeping 
things. ‘Come,’ you may hear him say, modulating 
his tones to persuasion, ‘come quickly ; you see it is 
a fresh piece of grass into which the cows have been 
turned only a few hours since ; it was too long for us 
before, but where they have eaten we can get at the 
ground comfortably. The water-wagtail is there al- 
ready ; he always accompanies the herd, and will have 
the pick and choice of everything. Or what do you 
say to the meadow by the brook? The mowers have 
begun, and the swathe has fallen before their scythes; 
there are acres of ground there which we could not 
touch for weeks ; now it is open, and the place is 
teeming with good food. The finches are there as 
busy as may be between the swathes—chaffinch and 
greenfinch, hedge-sparrow, thrushes, and blackbirds 
too. Are you afraid? Why, no one shoots in the 
middle of a summer’s day. Still irresolute ? (with 
an angry shrillness). Will you or will you not? 
(a sharp short whistle of interrogation). You are 
simply idiots. (finishing with a scream of abuse). 
I’m off !’ 
Seeing him start, the rest follow at once, jealous 
lest he should enjoy these pleasures alone. As he 
flies every few minutes he closes his wings, so that 
for half a dozen yards he shoots like an arrow through 
the air; then rapidly uses them, and again closes 
