136 Wild Life in a Southern County 



about it lie the fragments of many such shells — relics of 

 former feasts. Sometimes he will do this close to the bay- 

 window — if all is quiet — using the stone-flags for an anvil, 

 it he chances to find a snail hard by ; but he prefers the 

 recess behind the box-hedge. The thrushes seem half- 

 domesticated here ; they are tame, too, in the hedges, and 

 will sit and sing on a bough overhead without fear while 

 you wait for a rabbit on the bank beneath. 



