200 ©6@ Wt ld Life in a Southern County. 
necessary when lying gerdu in a dry ditch in summer 
to shoot a young rabbit, and when it is essential to 
keep quiet and still. Without it it is difficult to avoid 
lifting the hand to knock the flies away—which. 
* motion is sure to alarm the rabbit that may at that 
very moment be peeping out preparatory to issuing 
from his hole. It is impossible not to pity the horses 
in the hayfields on a sultry day ; despite all the care 
taken, their nostrils are literally black with crowds of 
flies, which constantly endeavour to crawl over the 
eyeball. Sunshine itself does not appear so potent 
in bringing forth insects as the close electrical kind or 
heat that precedes a thunderstorm. This is so well 
known that when the flies are more than usually 
busy the farmer makes haste to get in his hay, and 
lets down the canvas over his rick. The cows give 
warning at the same time by scampering about in the 
wildest and most ludicrous manner—their tails held 
up in the air—tormented by insects. 
The ha-ha wall, built of loose stones, is the home 
of thousands upon thousands of ants, whose nests are 
everywhere here, the ground being undisturbed by 
passing footsteps. They ascend trees to a great 
height, and may be seen going up the trunk some- 
times in a continuous stream, one behind the other in 
Indian file. 
In one spot on the edge of the ha-ha is a row of 
beehives—the garden wall and a shrubbery shelter 
them here from the north and east, and the drop of 
