THE HOUSE-MAKTIN. 
395 
The statement of several continental authors, that house- martins, 
on finding sparrows in possession of their nests, had been known 
to rise en masse , and fill up the entrance when the intruders were 
within, would seem, from the silence of some of the latest British 
writers of authority on the subject, not to be credited by them. 
The compiler of the Architecture of Birds sets it down as a “fan- 
ciful legend ; ” but I have unquestionable testimony, that a case 
precisely similar to those related by the authors alluded to, occurred 
in 1832, in the next farm to our own, near Belfast. 
When the house-martins returned in that year to a thatched 
cottage, belonging to Mr. John Clements, where they had annu- 
ally built for a long period — and which then displayed fourteen of 
their nests — a pair found that sparrows had taken possession of 
their domicile. On perceiving this, they kept up such “a chatter- 
ing about the nest” as to attract the attention of the owner of the 
house. After its continuance for some time, apparently until they 
were convinced that the sparrow was determined to retain posses- 
sion, they flew away, and did not return for a considerable time, 
when they re-appeared with about twenty of their kindred. They 
now immediately commenced “claying up the entrance to the 
nest,” which was done in the course of the day ; next morning, 
the construction of a new nest was commenced against the side 
of the old one, and in it they reared their brood undisturbed. 
After some time, the proprietor of the cottage, who had never 
heard of any similar case, pulled down both nests, and in that oc- 
cupied by the sparrow found its “ rotten corpse,” together with 
several eggs. A particular note of the entire proceeding, as re- 
lated by Mr. Clements, was made by my brother soon after the 
occurrence ; but to make “ assurance doubly sure ” before pub- 
lishing the account in 1842, I inquired of Mr. Clements whether 
he remembered such a circumstance, and he repeated it just as nar- 
rated nine years before. Some other persons too of our mutual 
acquaintance, were witness to the chief parts of the proceeding, and 
saw the sparrow, together with the eggs, in the sealed-up nest.* 
* Three recent occurrences of a similar nature are recorded by Mr. Weir (Mac- 
gillivray, British Birds, vol. iii. p. 591), and two others are alluded to under the 
head of “ Swallow ” by the Bishop of Norwich, in his Familiar History of Birds, 
vol. ii. p. 55, 3rd edition. 
