I read the pages on how "circling" in the radio logs was typed over "drifting", and how experts suspect that AE actually said "listening". I wonder if AE said "searching" -- due to AE's terseness on the radio, this might be how AE would say "flying a search pattern", whether square, circular, or some other shape.
A slightly different question: Is there any navigation reason to fly a circle or square other than a search pattern, perhaps to try to obtain a wind reading by multiple headings?