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 
82 
