36 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



inches from the margin of the nest, but quite live- 

 ly after being warmed in the hand. They were 

 replaced in the nest beside the cuckoo, which 

 struggled about till it got its back under one of 

 them, when it climbed backward directly up the 

 open side of the nest and pitched the pipit from 

 its back on to the edge. It then stood quite up- 

 right on its legs, which were straddled wide apart, 

 with the claws firmly fixed half-way down the in- 

 side of the nest, and, stretching its wings apart 

 and backward, it elbowed the pipit fairly over the 

 margin so far that its struo-^les took it down the 

 bank instead of back into the nest. After this 

 the cuckoo stood a minute or two feeling back 

 with its wings, as if to make sure that the pipit 

 was fairly overboard, and then subsided into the 

 bottom of the nest. 



" I replaced the ejected one and went home. 

 On returning the next day, both nestlings were 

 found dead and cold out of the nest. . . . But what 

 struck me most was this : the cuckoo was per- 

 fectly naked, without a vestige of a feather, or 

 even a hint of future feathers ; its eyes were not 

 yet opened, and its neck seemed too weak to sup- 

 port the weight of the head. The pipit had well- 

 developed quills on the wings and back, and had 

 bright eyes, partially open, yet they seemed quite 



