34 MY STUDIO NEIGHBORS 



The egg is always laid betimes, 

 and is usually the first to hatch, 

 the period of incubation be- 

 ing a day or two less than 

 that of the eggs of the 

 foster-parent. And woe 

 be to the fledglings 



whom fate has as- 

 sociated with a 

 young cow -bird! 

 He is the " early bird that 

 gets the worm." His is 

 the clamoring red mouth which 



I 



takes the provender of the en- 

 tire family. It is all "grist into 

 his mill," and everything he eats 

 seems to go to appetite his bedfellows, if not 

 thus starved to death, being at length crushed 

 by his comparatively ponderous bulk, or ejected 



