1 62 Wild Life in a Southern County 



against flies ; if you carry a bough in your hand as you 

 walk among the meadows they will not annoy you half so 

 much. Such a bough is very necessary when lying perdu 

 in a dry ditch in summer to shoot a young rabbit, and 

 when it is essential to keep quiet and still. Without it 

 it is difficult to avoid lifting the hand to knock the flies 

 away — -which motion is sure to alarm the rabbit that may 

 at that very moment be peeping out preparatory to issuing 

 from his hole. It is impossible not to pity the horses in 

 the hayfields on a sultry day ; despite all the care taken, 

 their nostrils are literally black with crowds of flies, which 

 constantly endeavour to crawl over the eyeball. Sunshine 

 itself does not appear so potent in bringing forth insects 

 as the close electrical kind of heat that precedes a thunder- 

 storm. This is so well known that when the flies are more 

 than usually busy the farmer makes haste to get in his 

 hay, and lets down the canvas over his rick. The cows 

 give warning at the same time by scampering about in the 

 wildest and most ludicrous manner — their tails held up in 

 the air — tormented by insects. 



The ha-ha wall, built of loose stones, is the home of 

 thousands upon thousands of ants, whose nests are every- 

 where here, the ground being undisturbed by passing 

 footsteps. They ascend trees to a great height, and may 

 be seen going up the trunk sometimes in a continuous 

 stream, one behind the other in Indian file. 



In one spot on the hedge of the ha-ha is a row of bee- 

 hives — the garden wall and a shrubbery shelter them here 

 from the north and east, and the drop of the ha-ha gives 

 them a clear exit and entrance. This is thought a great 

 advantage — not to have any hedge or bush in front of the 

 hives — because the bees, heavily laden with honey or 

 pollen, encounter no obstruction in coming home. They 



