308 «= Wild Life in a Southern County. 
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millions of ants must have been needed to raise these 
hillocks! and what still more incalculable numbers 
must have lived in them! A wilder spot could 
scarcely have been imagined, though situate between 
rich meadow and ploughed lands. 
There was always a covey of partridges about 
the field, but they could not have had such a feast 
of eggs as would naturally be supposed, because in 
the course of time a crust of turf had grown over 
the ant-hills. The temporary hills of loose earth 
thrown up every summer by the sides of the fields, 
where they can lay bare a whole nest with two or 
three scratches, must afford much more food. Had 
it been otherwise all the partridges in the neighbour- 
hood would have gathered together here; but there 
never seemed more than one or two coveys about. 
The peewits had nests year after year in this place, 
and even when the nesting-time was over a few might 
often be seen. The land for agricultural purposes was 
almost valueless, there being so little herbage upon 
which cattle could graze, and no possibility of mow- 
ing any ; so in the end gangs of labourers were set to 
work and the ant-hills levelled, and, indeed, bodily 
removed. Thus this last piece of waste land was 
brought into use. 
Upon the Downs there is a place haunted by 
some few peewits. In the colder months they 
assemble in flocks, and visit the arable land where it is 
of a poor character, or where there are signs of peat in 
