WHITE-RUMPED SWALLOAV. 591 



he made a determined resistance, and finally was victorious. 

 He and his partner finished the interior of it, in which they 

 reared their family, and lived with the Martins afterwards on 

 terms of good neighbourhood. ' The whole account given by 

 Avicenna, Albertus ^Magnus, Rzaczynski, Batgowski, Lin- 

 nreus, and other naturalists with respect to these birds build- 

 ing up sparrows into their nests of which the sparrows had 

 taken possession, is,' says the editor of the volume on the Ai*- 

 chitecture of Birds in the Library of Entertaining Know- 

 ledge, ' a fanciful legend, for the sparrows with their strong 

 bills would instantly demolish the thickest wall which the 

 swallows could build, instead of quietly permitting themselves 

 to be imprisoned.' In opposition, however, to this bold 

 assertion (and it ought to be a warning not to condemn 

 too rashly the statements of others), I am enabled to re- 

 cord three well authenticated facts of the kind. A few 

 years ago in the window of the second story of a house in Lin- 

 lithgow, inhabited by JNIr James Brown, heckle-maker, a 

 pair of Martins built a nest, w^hich was taken possession of 

 by a female sparrow. In attempting to dislodge this bold 

 intruder, a dozen of their companions came to their assistance. 

 After many severe struggles they were unable to effect their ob- 

 ject. For her rash conduct, however, they were determined 

 to make her suffer. They agreed to entomb her alive by clos- 

 ing up the entrance wnth the mortar which they use in build- 

 ing their nests, and in this they succeeded. Mr James Douglass, 

 slater, with whom I have been for a long time acquainted, and 

 upon whose veracity I can depend, assured me that he was a 

 spectator of the occurrence, and that he, in the presence of 

 several individuals, some of whom he named, took the dead 

 bird out of the nest. The truth of it is further confirmed 

 by Mr John Ray, nailer in Linlithgow, who told me that he 

 was also present when it happened. At Bathgate mill, in 

 June 1835, another instance of the same kind occurred. A 

 male sparrow having persisted in occupying the dwelling of a 

 pair of Martins, they, with twenty of their kindred, finding that 

 they were unable to force him out of it, shut him up with mor- 

 tar. ;Mr John Sayer, the miller, his brother, and the engineer 



