ON BIRDS. 29 



driven a pair of swallows from their nest, laid 

 their eggs in it, sat on them, and hatched six 

 young ones. When this took place, a number 

 of swallows came and pecked down their former 

 nest, and I saw the helpless young sparrows on 

 the ground, where they soon perished. A third 

 instance of this combined intelligence in birds 

 was communicated to me by the late Sir Henry 

 Willock, who was our Ambassador in Persia. 

 There was a ruined tower opposite his window, 

 at Teharan, on which those migratory birds, the 

 storks, came year after year to make their nest. 

 On one occasion a pair of peafowl forestalled 

 them, and took possession of the tower and began 

 to prepare a nest, driving the old storks away. 

 After a short time a number of these latter as- 

 sembled, attacked the peafowl, drove them away, 

 and remained near the spot until the original 

 storks were securely established on the tower. 

 Now you must perceive that this faculty of com- 

 municating their wants and of exciting their 

 congeners, or others of their own species, to 

 assist in revenging their wrongs, is not only 

 curious, but wonderful. How this is done must 

 be left to conjecture, except that it is an impulse 

 implanted in them by their Divine Creator. 



