BIRDS IN THE CALENDAR 



enforced absence the swallows returned in 

 force, threw the nestlings out, and demolished 

 the home. The sparrows sought other quarters, 

 and the swallows triumphantly built a new 

 nest on the ruins of the old. A German writer 

 relates a case of revolting reprisal on the part 

 of some swallows against a sparrow that ap- 

 propriated their nest and refused to quit. 

 After repeated failure to evict the intruder, 

 the swallows, helped by other members of the 

 colony, calmly plastered up the front door 

 so effectually that the unfortunate sparrow 

 was walled up alive and died of hunger. This 

 refined mode of torture is not unknown in 

 the history of mankind, but seems singularly 

 unsuited to creatures so fragile. 



The nests of these birds show, as a rule, 

 little departure from the conventional plan, 

 but they do adapt their architecture to cir- 

 cumstances, and I remember being much 

 struck on one occasion by the absence of any 

 dome or roof. It was in Asia Minor, on the 

 seashore, that I came upon a cottage long 

 deserted, its door hanging by one hinge, and 

 all the glass gone from the windows. In the 

 empty rooms numerous swallows were rearing 

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