218 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
out of reach except by a ladder, and safe from all beasts 
of prey, and another place its nest on a low grassy 
bank scarcely hidden by a plant of wild parsley, and 
easily taken by the smallest boy? At first it looks like 
a great difference in intelligence, but probably each bird 
acted as well as could be under the circumstances. Each 
robin has to fight for his locality, and he has to make 
‘the best of his territory; if he trespassed on another 
bird’s premises he would be driven away. You must 
build your house where you happen to possess a plot of 
land. It is curious to see the male bird feeding the 
female, not only while on the nest, but when she comes 
away from it; the female perches on a branch and 
utters a little call, and the male brings her food. He was 
feeding her the other evening on the bare boughs of a 
fig tree some distance from the nest. The warmth of 
the sun, although we could not feel it, must have. pene- 
trated into the earth some time since, for a slowworm 
came forth on a mound for the first time on April 16. 
He coiled up on the eastern side every morning for some 
hours, but was never seen in the afternoon. His short, 
thick body and unfinished tail, more like a punch or the 
neck of a stumpy bottle, was turned in a loop, the head 
nearly touching the tail, like a pair of sugar-tongs. Coming 
out from the stitchwort and grasses, the spiders often. 
ran over his shining dark brown surface, something the 
colour of glazed earthenware. A snake or an adder 
would have begun to move away the moment any one 
stopped to look at it ; but the slowworm takes no notice, 
and hence it is often aid to be blind. He seems to dis- 
like any sharp noise, and is really fully aware of your 
presence. Close by the mound, which stands in a corner 
of the garden, there is a great bunch of blue comfrey, to 
which the bees ard humble-bees come in such numbers 
