OUR HOME BIRDS. 
101 
elevating its elbows, clambered backward with it up 
the side of the nest till it reached the top, where, 
resting for a moment, it threw off its load with a 
jerk, and quite disengaged it from the nest. It re- 
mained in this situation for a short time, feeling 
about with the extremity of its wings, as if to be 
convinced whether the business was properly exe- 
cuted, and then dropped into the nest again/ ” 
“ What a wicked little bird !” exclaimed Clara in 
disgust, and then begging pardon very prettily when 
she saw that Miss Harson had not finished reading. 
“ ‘ With the extremities of its wings I have often 
seen it examine, as it were, an egg and nestling before 
it began its operations ; and the nice sensibilities 
which these parts seem to possess appeared suffi- 
ciently to compensate the want of sight, which as 
yet it was destitute of. I afterward put in an egg, 
and this, by a similar process, was conveyed to the 
edge of the nest and thrown out. These experiments 
I have since repeated several times in different nests, 
and have always found the young cuckoo disposed to 
act in the same manner. In climbing up the nest it 
sometimes drops its burden, and thus is foiled in its 
endeavors ; but after a little respite the work is 
resumed, and goes on almost incessantly till it is 
effected. 
“ ‘ The singularity of its shape is well adapted to 
