SOLITARY AND GREGARIOUS. 55 



assistance, when they all unite in a body to bring a 

 sufficient quantity of mortar to entomb the robber- 

 sparrows alive in the nest. This story is obviously 

 imaginary, arid the fiction is shown from the impossi- 

 bility of so entombing 1 , by means of clay, a bird with 

 so powerful a bill as the sparrow *. 



M. Dupont de Nemours gives the following sin- 

 gular account of what fell under his own observation : 

 " I remarked," he says, " a swallow which had 

 unhappily and I cannot imagine in what manner 

 slipped its foot into a slip-knot of packthread, the 

 other end of which was attached to a spout of the 

 College of the Four Nations. Its strength was ex- 

 hausted, it hung at the end of the thread, uttered 

 cries, and sometimes raised itself as if making an 

 effort to fly away. All the swallows of the large 

 basin between the bridges of the Tuileries and the 

 Pont Neuf, and perhaps from places more remote, had 

 assembled to the number of several thousands. Their 

 flight was like a cloud ; all uttered a cry of pity and 

 alarm. After some hesitation, and a tumultuous 

 counsel, one of them fell upon a device for delivering 

 their companion, communicated it to the rest, and 

 began to put it into execution. Each took his place; 

 all those who were at hand went in turn, as in the 

 sport of running at the ring, and, in passing, struck 

 the thread with their bills. These efforts, directed 

 to one point, were continued every second, and even 

 more frequently. Half an hour was passed in this 

 kind of labour before the thread was severed and the 

 captive restored to liberty. But the flock, only a little 

 diminished," adds M. Dupont de Nemours, " re- 

 mained until night chattering continually in a tone 

 which no longer betrayed anxiety, and as if making 

 mutual felicitations and recitals of their achieve- 

 mentf." 



* See Architecture of Birds, p. 335. 

 f Anloine, Animaux Celebres, ii. App. p. 18. 



