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. 



" 3-3- 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, 



