SWALLOW AND liol si; MAKTIN 301 



liciuTactor. The only resource left to the martin is to _ i aid from his 

 fellows, and this he appears occasionally to do, but why at times and 

 not at others has yet to he ascertained. On one occasion a cock 

 .sparrow who tried to pi in |M>ssession of a martin's nest was attacked 

 by the owners and three other |>airs, and was driven off. He does not 

 appear, curiously enough, to have received much aid from his mate; 

 and when he failed in a further attempt on the nesting-hole of a 

 i>liir-tii. -In il< -( it. ,1 him But these combined assaults by house- 

 murtins art* not ah\a\x. it u^ualK . MUTI --tul \\.ii mentions a ca-, 

 in which a pair of sparrows, who for eight days had watched the 

 building of a martin's nest, took it and held it against the owners 

 and three other pairs.- It has been often stated that martins will 

 actually fill up with mud the entrance to the nest when the hen 

 sparrow is sitting inside, and so entomb her alive. Unfortunately, 

 none of the accounts I have found are published by actual eye- 

 witnesses. 8 The most detailed is given by an Austrian naturalist. 

 F. C. Keller, who quotes verbatim the letter of a school inspector, 

 Dr. Josef Gobanz : " In the spring of 1883 a pair of martins found 

 its old nest occupied by sparrows. The hen sparrow was sitting in 

 ilir not. and ivxJNtrtl \\itli ximn- llt)\\-* I'mm h i beak all attempt^ 

 at ejection. After many hours' vain efforts on the part of the pair of 

 martins to regain possession, the cock sparrow, who kept near to the 

 nest, was first chased away by several martins, while a large number 

 appeared in front of the nest, and compelled the hen to remain inside. 

 The martins then filled up the entrance. When the hen sparrow 

 realised the situation, she sought to escape, but it was too late ; she 

 could only get her neck and head through the opening, and thus she 

 remained, and died "a spectacle for the curious and a warning to evil- 

 doers. 4 There is good evidence that sparrows are occasionally found 

 immured in this way. The fact has been at least twice reported by 



\ahirnlut. 1908, 101 (C. B. Moffat . 

 : Mitcgillivrny. //taforv of Bird*, iii. SCO. 



> MavRillivray, op. n't, iii. 501 (three instance*); fWW, I8UO, xv. 508 (eTcr*l); Milt. ././.,/. n 

 der Aargauitchcn Xatur/orschfnden OettlUchnfl. Heft x. (II. Fiucher Sigwart) ; ZootoyM, 1849, 



4 Ornu Cnrinthiae, p. 52. 



