CHAP. XV.] IMAGINATION AND VOLITION. 251 



" Several interesting facts have been communicated to me of the 

 revengeful disposition of martins, when their nests have been 

 invaded by sparrows. In one instance, at Hampton Court, a 

 gentleman informed me the morning it took place, that a couple 

 of sparrows had hatched their young in a martin's nest. Two or 

 three days afterwards, a number of martins came, pecked the nest 

 to pieces, and he saw the unfledged young dead on the ground 

 beneath the window. In another instance, the foreman of the 

 carpenters at the palace, Hampton Court, informed me, that while 

 working at his bench close to the window, a pair of swallows built 

 their nest in a corner of it, and where he frequently watched it. 

 When completed some sparrows took possession of it, and 

 deposited their eggs. While the hen was sitting on them, several 

 martins came and closed up the hole. After a few weeks he ex- 

 amined the nest, and found the bird dead on her eggs." 



Again, according to Swainson, " Many of the parrot family are 

 well known to evince a strong and lasting affection towards each 

 other ;" and he adds : " Bonnet mentions the mutual affection of a 

 pair of those called love-birds, who were confined in the same cage. 

 At last, the female falling sick, her companion evinced the strongest 

 marks of attachment; he carried all the food from the bottom of 

 the cage, and fed her on her perch ; and when she expired, her 

 unhappy mate went round and rouud her, in the greatest 

 agitation, attempting to open her bill, and give her nourishment. 

 He then gradually languished ; and survived her death only a few- 

 months." 



But the actions of Birds in defence of their young are 

 perhaps the most remarkable, and associated with the 

 greatest strength of Emotion " self seems no longer to be 

 considered, danger no more dreaded." As Swainson says : 

 " The most feeble birds, at the season of incubation, 

 assault the strong and fierce ; the weakest will assail the 

 most powerful. It is a well-known fact that a pair of 

 ravens, which dwelt in a cavity of the rock of Gibraltar, 

 would never suffer a vulture or eagle to approach their nest, 

 but would drive them away with every appearance of fury.'* 

 And " the artifices employed by the partridge, the lapwing, 

 the ring plover, the peewit, and numerous other land birds, 



