Ant-Fiills. ; 907 
/ 
while several of their friends fly at a safer distance, 
whistling in sympathy. 
Then you have a good opportunity of observing the 
peculiar motion of their wings, which seem to strike 
simply downwards and not also backwards, as with 
other birds ; it is a quick jerking movement, the wing 
giving the impression of pausing the tenth of a second 
at the finish of the stroke before it is lifted again. If 
you pass on a short distance and make no effort to 
find the nest, they recover confidence and descend. 
When the peewit alights he 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 thirty 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- 
thorn bushes stood. It was a favourite place with the 
finches ; the hawthorn bushes always had nests in them. 
Thyme grew luxuriantly on the ground between the 
nests and on the ant-hills. Wild thyme and ants are 
often found together, as on the Downs. How many 
x2 
