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 urhica,") 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.* 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, 
^ Fauna Suecica. 
