INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 31 



away the pea-fowl. Having done this, they re- 

 mained quietly near the spot, to see that their 

 friends were securely reinstated, and having as- 

 certained this to their satisfaction, they left them, 

 and returned whither they had come. 



Similar manoeuvres may be witnessed among 

 our own household birds, the martins. They 

 build, as all the world knows, under the eaves of 

 houses ; and, not unfrequently, when the nest is 

 completed, the sparrows will come and take for- 

 cible possession of it. The martins, unable to 

 dislodge the unwelcome intruders, convoke their 

 companions, some of whom keep watch over the 

 captive occupant of the nest, while others bring 

 clay, and completely closing up the entrance of 

 the nest, fly off, leaving the delinquent sparrow to 

 be suffocated or to perish of hunger. 



Bishop Stanley has given, in his delightful 

 " Sketches of Birds," a remarkable anecdote illus- 

 trative of this strange and unaccountable faculty. 

 The incident is said to have occurred at Ennis, in 

 1828. An old goose, which had been for a fort- 

 night hatching in a farmer's kitchen, was suddenly 

 taken violently ill. She soon after left her nest 

 and went to an outhouse where there was a young 

 goose of the first year, which she brought with her 

 into the kitchen. The young one immediately 

 scrambled into the old one's nest, sat, in due time 



