19 



8 Wonders of the Bird World 



better built than its own, and I remember my disappoint- 

 ment in India, when on one of the staircases of Akbar's 

 palace at Futtehpur Sikri, I discovered to my delight the 

 curious retort-shaped mud-nest of one of the Red-rumped 



Nests of the Indian Fairy-Martin {PftrodicUdiVi Jluznccla). 



Swallows {Hintndo erythropygid), only to find that the 

 interior had been appropriated by the ever-ubiquitous 

 Sparrow in the shape of his smaller and cleaner representa 

 tive, Passer indicus. These mud-nests of the Red-rumped 

 Swallows and the Fairy Martins {Petrochelidon) s^tq remark- 



