THE MINERS 281 



could be seen on the bare sand which 

 could have attracted its attention. Sud- 

 denly it stopped at a certain spot, pressed 

 the head close to the ground, and com- 

 menced beating the ground with its abdo- 

 men, producing at the same time a quite 

 sharp sound similar to bss, bss, bss, tap- 

 ping with each sound the earth with its 

 abdomen. It continued this performance 

 for some time, running or flying off a 

 short distance twice or thrice during brief 

 intervals. Finally it picked up with its 

 jaws "a small pebble, carried it to the 

 mysterious spot, and deposited it on top, 

 pressing the pebble down 

 as much as possible to 



insure its remaining in ^l^^ 

 position. Running then 

 again a distance away, it picked up another 

 pebble and placed it close to the first one ; 

 after a while a third was added. No more 

 pebbles of the desired size being near 

 enough at hand, it ran some distance 



