198 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



like, you cannot fail to find them. Similarly in the young 

 wheat crops and in the clover fields they are quite at home. 

 Sometimes when I have been scanning a clover field, my eye 

 has been arrested by a white patch about the size of a florin, 

 looking for all the world like an Oxeye Daisy ; but though 

 a second glance serves to show ,that it is not a flower, it 

 will remain still for several seconds, and you may imagine 

 that you see resentment gleaming out of a red eye. During 

 this time the bird's head is straight towards you, as I have 

 observed a bird's in a bush generally is, and he is working 

 himself into a passion. His next performance, when he 

 cannot stand being stared out of countenance any longer, is 

 to jerk his body as if someone was pulling at him with a 

 string, to dart up into the air, menacing you with his armed 

 wings, and to give utterance to the loud bi-syllabic cry, 

 which has obtained for him his name of Ziczac. 



Many were paired as early as February 1st. Their evolu- 

 tions in the breeding season are very curious. Sometimes 

 they assume the most laughable postures. At this time 

 they are often to be seen resting on the length of the tarsus, 

 or sitting upon the sand. I have gone up expecting to find 

 a nest, but there never was one where a bird was sitting. 

 The nests, when we found them, were generally empty — 

 mere hollows in the sand. Apparently, like Lapwings and 

 Wrens, they make many before using one. We obtained 

 very few eggs. Whatever bird or beast ventures near their 

 nests they boldly attack with loud screams. They are the 

 greatest nuisance to anyone watching in a hole for crocodiles. 

 I should say from my experience that the reptilian monsters 

 were infinitely more indebted to the guardianship of the 

 noisy Ziczac than to the Black-headed Pluvian, and for that 

 reason I should side with those who suppose the former to 

 be the trochilns of Herodotus. His anecdote and its sub- 

 sequent embellishments have formed the ground for some 

 controversy ; but admitting that the story of the tooth-pick 



