26 



MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



with tender solicitude. The nest is usually so 

 sparse and flimsy an affair that you can see 

 through its coarse mesh of sticks from below, the 

 fledglings lying as on a grid- 

 iron or toaster; and it is, 

 moreover, occasionally so 

 much higher in the 



centre than 

 at the sides 

 that the chicks tumble 

 out of bed and perish. 

 Still, it is a beginning 

 in the right direction. 

 Yes, it would ap- 

 pear that our American cuckoo is endeavoring to 

 make amends for the sins of its ancestors ; but, 



