WILD CREATURES OF GARDEN AND HEDGEROW 



vanished to. He shook one, having pickcfl it 

 up by the lip of its shell, just as he would have 

 done when killing a worm, but it did not 

 seem to occur to him to carry it to any one 

 of the stones I had put ready for him to beat 

 the snails on. Of course this had no effect on 

 the snail, which only shrank back farther into 

 its house. On the sixth day the bird seemed 

 to lose all patience. He picked up a snail, 

 swung it backwards and forwards and brought 

 it down with such a thump on the ground that 

 it flew from his beak and half across the big cage. 

 He hopped after it, picked it up, and, jumping 

 on one of the anvils that I had put ready for 

 him, beat the snail several times against it, 

 hitting it first on one side and then on the 

 other with a swinging motion. He was not 

 expert enough, however, to crack it, and it 

 rolled away, after which he tried in turn all 

 the five snails that were in the cage. He 

 seemed very pleased with his discovery that 

 they could be hit on a stone, and went on trying 

 first one snail and then another, until, after 

 fifteen minutes' hard work, one, more weak 

 in the shell than the rest, gave way. He had 

 cracked his first snail ! Once the shell was 

 broken it did not take him long to pound it to 

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