186 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
and tenderest leaves. These he drew towards him 
with his fore, feet and complacently nibbled. When 
he had picked out what suited his fancy he ran along 
the branch, and in an instant was lost to sight on the: 
bank among the grass. 
The nests of the ‘harvest trow ’—a still smaller 
mouse, seldom seen except in summer—-are common 
in the grass of the orchard (and in almost every 
meadow) before it is mown. As the summer wanes. 
their dead bodies are frequently found in the foot- 
paths ; for a kind of epizoic seems to seize them at 
that time, and they die in numbers. It is curious. 
that an animal which carefully conceals itself in 
health should at the approach of death seek an 
open and exposed place like a footpath worn clear | 
of grass, 
In the ha-ha wall, at that part of the orchard where 
the highway hedge comes up, is the square mouth 
ofarather large drain. The drain itself is of rude con- 
struction—two stones on edge and a third across at 
the top. It comes from the cowyard, passing under 
the outermost part of the garden a considerable dis- 
tance away from the house. Very early one morning 
the labourers, coming to work, saw a fox slip into 
the mouth of the drain through the long grass of the 
meadow on which it opened. In the summer, the 
cattle being all out in the fields, the drain was per- 
fectly dry, and it was known that now and then the 
rabbits from the hedge made use of it as a temporary 
