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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