diet consists mainly of amphibeans and occasionally fish (Arnold and 
Burton 1978). Therefore it is unlikely that the behaviour of the sandpipers 
could be interpreted as that of potential prey making themselves known 
to a nearby predator, especially as the encounter was so close. Neither 
can the behaviour be construed as mobbing, a fear-aggression response, 
since there was no harassment. The sandpiper did not behave as though 
threatened i.e. by holding their heads low, by bobbing and by raising 
their back feathers (Cramp and Simmons 1983). Rather they appeared to 
be craning their necks in order to get a closer look. Other accounts of 
birds mobbing snakes have described considerable agitation amongst 
the mobbing birds and the birds may themselves be attacked (Ginn 1986 
and Short 1987). 
A probable explanation of the sandpipers' response to the snake is that 
they were exhibiting exploratory behaviour towards an object with 
which they were unfamiliar. Certainly, nonpredatory interaction between 
birds and reptiles is rarely observed. Exploratory behaviour is typified 
by the desire to approach and also to withdraw, and can be seen as a 
conflict between curiosity and the novelty and fear of the unfamiliar 
(MacFarlandef at. 1981). 
References 
ARNOLD, E. N. AND BURTON, J. A. (1978) A Field Guide to the Reptiles and 
Amphibeans of Britain and Europe. Collins, London. 
CRAMP, S. AND SIMMONS, K. E. L. (eds) (1983) The Birds of the Western 
Palearctic Vol III. Oxford University Press. 
GINN, P. J. (1986) Birds and the hunting strategy of the Boomslang. 
The Honeyguide 32:45. 
MACFARLAND, D. ET AL. (eds) (1981) The Oxford Companion to Animal 
Behaviour. Oxford University Press. 
NETHERSOLE-THOMPSON, D. AND NETHERSOLE-THOMPSON, M. 
(1986) Waders, their breeding Haunts and Watchers. Poyser, Calton. 
SHORT, L. L. (1987) Black mamba takes Northern Crombec from mobbing bird 
group. Scopus 11:53-54. 
WILLOCK,C. (1982) The Waterhole. Survival Anglia for Channel 4. Survival 
Anglia Ltd. (Television documentary.) 
Richard Hoath, The American University in Cairo, 113 Kasr el Aini, Cairo, 
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