484 SPARROW. 



but though Sparrows delight to frequent such places, they rarely nestle 

 in their vicinity, unless houses be near, and not even then in any num- 

 ber. In a colony of bank-swallows, for instance, near Charlton, in 

 Kent, consisting of more than a hundred pairs, not more than two or 

 three pairs of Sparrows have settled; I say " settled," because they appear 

 to live on terms of good neighbourhood with the original colonists, as I 

 have watched them for hours passing and re-passing without the least 

 indication of hostility, which amongst birds soon shows itself in tones 

 of insult and defiance, and by incessant skirmishing and bickerings. 

 How differently these same bank-swallows treated a poor cuckoo, I had 

 an opportunity [ of witnessing, while observing their good fellowship 

 with the Sparrows. The cuckoo was flying quietly along, certainly 

 meditating no harm against the swallows, and not even poaching on 

 their domain by hawking for flies, inasmuch as he prefers a breakfast of 

 caterpillars, which the swallows never touch ; nevertheless, the instant 

 he appeared, the tocsin was sounded, and every swallow in the colony 

 darted out of the holes to pounce upon the intruder, whom they beat 

 most unmercifully with bill and wing, till they drove him from their 

 boundaries. The Sparrows, meanwhile, sat at the mouths of their 

 holes with the utmost nonchalance as spectators, altogether uncon- 

 cerned in the affray. 



I have mentioned this harmonious consociality of the bank-swallows 

 and the Sparrows, the rather, because we meet with anecdotes in books 

 of obstinate contests for possession between Sparrows and other species 

 of swallows. Avicenna, and afterwards Albertus Magnus, tell us that 

 when a Sparrow takes forcible possession of the nest of a window- 

 swallow, (Hirundo urbica^) there ensues determined battle between the 

 proprietors and the invaders, in which the latter usually come off in the 

 first instance victorious, from their cunningly remaining in the nest. 

 The swallows, however, take care to be revenged ; for, summoning in 

 their companions to assist them, they bring a quantity of the mortar 

 which they use in building their nests, and closing up the entrance, 

 entomb the Sparrows alive. The same story is given by Rzaczynski ; 

 and Batgouski, the Jesuit, affirms that he was an eye-witness of the 

 circumstance, while Linnaeus, who was much too credulous of such 

 matters, states it as a fact ascertained. 1 M. Montbeillard, on the con- 

 trary, says that the instances which he has witnessed of contests of this 

 kind give no countenance to the story. He observed the swallows, 



1 Fauna Suecica. 



