114 THE BIRDS OF SHERWOOD FOREST. 
tered down, and popping in, turned himself quickly 
round, and sat with his head peeping out of the opening. 
Great, of course, was the consternation and distress of 
the martins on discovering the intruder, but though I 
have seen the incident dozens of times, I never saw any 
attempt to attack or eject the sparrow, nor, as it is 
asserted has been done, to stop up the hole with clay, 
and thus to inclose him, as the erring nuns were of old, 
** Alive, within the tomb.” 
I have always been inclined to disbelieve this story, 
for I thought that the sparrow was too bold a bird to sit 
quietly and allow itself to be thus immured, when a few 
strokes of its strong beak would speedily demolish its 
prison walls; but Macgillivray adduces three such well- 
authenticated instances of a similar occurrence, that I 
am compelled to abandon my doubts in the face of so 
eminent an authority. One of these instances he thus 
relates :— 
“ A few years ago, in the window of a second story of a 
house in Linlithgow, inhabited by Mr. James Brown, 
buckle-maker, a pair of martins built a nest, which was 
taken possession of by a female sparrow. In attempting 
to dislodge this bold intruder, a dozen of their com- 
panions came to their assistance, but after many severe 
struggles they were unable to effect their object. For 
her rash conduct, however, they were determined to 
make her suffer. They agreed to entomb her alive by 
closing up the entrance with the mortar which they 
use in building their nests, and in this they succeeded. 
Mr. James Douglas, slater, with whom I have been a 
long time acquainted, and upon whose veracity I can 
depend, assured me that he was a spectator of the occur- 
—— 
