134 Up in the Morning Early. 



no doubt of this, that the young of the cuckoo are armed, 

 as if by special provision of nature in their structure, to 

 throw out the young of their foster-parents from the 

 nest. Their wings at the upper edges are strong and 

 high, and there is a hollow in the back such as is found 

 in the young of no other birds. Their wings and back 

 form, as it were, a shovel by which they may lift and 

 throw out everything else beside them. From the very 

 minute description which Mrs. Blackburn has given of 

 facts observed by her and many of her friends, the 

 young cuckoo works and works till he gets under what- 

 ever is in the nest, then he straddles up with his feet 

 fixed in the sides of the nest till high enough, and 

 throws one of his shoulders above the other, and so 

 pitches his fellow-nestling out, and this while he is 

 still almost featherless and totally blind ! This only 

 adds to the mystery and the horror which cannot but 

 be felt in studying many of the ways of this bird. 



