188 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
specially to protect them ; but in the day they roam 
about in the vicinity of the rickyards where they are 
kept. They will make runs down the centre of a 
double-mound hedge, and while thus rambling occa- 
sionally stroll into the jaws of their foe, who has 
been patiently waiting hidden in the long grass and 
underwood. In the day, too, rabbits often sit out in 
a bunch of grass, or dry furrow, a long way from the 
‘bury.’ Their form is usually within a few paces of a 
well-marked ‘run’—they follow the run out into the 
field, and then leave it and go among the grass at one 
side. The run, therefore, sometimes acts as a guide 
to the fox, who, sheltered by the tall bennets and 
thick bunches, occasionally glides up it in the daytime 
to his prey. 
There is sure to be a snake or two in the grass 
of the orchard during the summer, especially if there 
chance to be an old manure-heap anywhere near ; 
for that is the place in which they like to leave their 
chains of white eggs, out of which, if broken, the little 
snakes issue only two or three inches in length. The 
heat of the manure-heap acts as anincubator. When 
it is wet and the hay cannot be touched, the hay- 
makers, there being nothing else for them to do, are 
put to turn such heaps, and frequently find the eggs 
of snakes. These creatures now and then get inside 
farmhouses, whose floors are generally on a level 
with the surface of the earth or nearly so. They 
have been found in the clockcase—the old upright 
