50 



MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



nursery for a second family. But either supposi- 

 tion is quickly dispelled as we further examine 

 the nest ; for in separating the upper compart- 

 ment we have just caught a glimpse of what was, 

 perhaps only yesterday, the hollow of a perfect 

 nest; and, what is more to the point of my story, 



the hollow contains an 

 egg — perhaps two, in 

 which case they will 

 be very dissimilar, one 

 of delicate white with 

 faint spots of brown 

 on its larger end, the 

 putting of the warbler, 

 the other much larger, 

 with its greenish sur- 

 face entirely speckled 

 with brown, and which, 

 if we have had any ex- 

 perience in bird-nest- 

 ing, we immediately recognize as the mischievous 

 token of the cow -bird. We have discovered a 

 most interesting curiosity for our natural-history 

 cabinet — the embodiment of a presumably new 

 form of intelligence in the divine plan looking to 

 the survival of the fittest. It is not known how 

 many years or centuries it has taken the little 



