8 Wild Life in a Southern County 



eye traces it up. The ploughshare, heavy and drawn with 

 great force, smooths the earth as it cleaves it, giving it for 

 a time a ' face ' as it were, the moisture on which reflects 

 the light. If you watch the farmers driving to market, 

 you will see that they glance up the furrows to note the 

 workmanship and look for game ; you may tell from a 

 distance if they espy a hare by the check of the rein and 

 the extended hand pointing. 



The partridges, too, cower as they hear the noise of 

 wheels or footsteps, but their brown backs, rounded as 

 they stoop, do not deceive the eye that knows full well the 

 irregular shape taken by lumps of earth. Both hares and 

 rabbits may be watched with ease from an elevation, and 

 if you remain quiet will rarely discover your presence while 

 you are above them. They keep a sharp look-out all 

 round, but never think of glancing upwards, unless, of 

 course, some unusual noise attracts attention. 



Looking away from the brow of the hill here over the 

 rampart, see, yonder in the narrow hollow a flock is feed- 

 ing : you can tell even so far off that it is feeding, because 

 the sheep are scattered about, dotted hither and thither 

 over the surface. It is their habit the moment they are 

 driven to run together. Farther away, slowly travelling 

 up a distant down, another flock, packed close, rises towards 

 the ridge, like a thick white mist stealthily ascending the 

 slope. 



Just outside the trench, almost within reach, there lies 

 a small white something, half hidden by the grass. It is 

 the skull of a hare, bleached by the winds and the dew 

 and the heat of the summer sun. The skeleton has disap- 

 peared, nothing but the bony casing of the head remains, 

 with its dim suggestiveness of life, polished and smooth 

 from the friction of the elements. Holding it in the hand 



