SWIFTS, SWALLOWS AND MARTINS 



from care ; and though that of the swift can 

 scarcely, perhaps, when we remember its 

 shrill voice, be described as one grand sweet 

 song, it should not be chequered by many 

 troubles. The greatest risk is no doubt that 

 of being snapped up by some watchful pike 

 if the bird skims too close to the surface of 

 either still or running water, and I have even 

 heard of their being seized in this way by 

 hungry mahseer, those great barbel which 

 gladden the heart of exiled anglers whose lot 

 is cast on the banks of Himalayan rivers. 



It is, however, the sparrows and starlings, 

 rivals for the nesting sites, who show them- 

 selves the irreconcilable enemies of the re- 

 turned prodigals. Terrific battles are continu- 

 ally enacted between them with varying 

 fortunes, and the anecdotes of these frays 

 would fill a volume. Jesse tells of a feud at 

 Hampton Court, in the course of which the 

 swallows, having only then completed their 

 nest, were evicted by sparrows, who forthwith 

 took possession and hatched out their eggs. 

 Then came Nemesis, for the sparrows were 

 compelled to go foraging for food with which 

 to fill the greedy beaks, and during their 

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