WHEATEARS, DABCHICKS 71 



as before. It is a constant little run of hops, a pause, 

 and then another little run of hops, each bird follow- 

 ing the other about in turn, the distance between 

 them being, as a rule, from two or three feet to 

 five or six paces. 



"3.10. — Another little fly up into the air, followed 

 by the frenzied dance on descending. Then the two 

 come together in the mouth of a rabbit-burrow, fly 

 at each other as before, separate again almost imme- 

 diately, and continue their hopping over the warren, 

 the one still dogging the other. 



" 3.30. — The two fly at each other as though to 

 fight ; but, again, just as they seem about to meet, 

 they avoid, and quicker than the eye can follow they 

 are a yard or so apart. One of them then dances 

 violently from one depression of the soil to another, 

 arching the space between the two ; at the end of it 

 he fans out the tail and stands looking defiantly at 

 his rival, who fans his and returns the glance, then 

 makes a little run towards him, sweeping the ground 

 with it. Instead of fighting, however, which both 

 the champions seem to be chary of, one of them 

 again runs into a hollow — this time a very shallow 

 one — and begins to dance, but in a manner slightly 

 different. He now hardly rises from the ground, over 

 which he seems more to spin in a strange sort of 

 way than to fly — to buzz, as it were — in a confined 

 area, and with a tendency to go round and round.* 

 Having done this a little, he runs quickly from the 

 hollow, plucks a few little bits of grass, returns with 

 them into it, drops them there, comes out again, 



* Very like the action of the nightjar when disturbed with the young 

 chicks. 



