70 
BY THE WAYS JDK 
Illinois Prize Letter. 
Granville Ill. Feb. 27, 1906. 
Dear Wayside, 
As my letter was not published, I 
thought I would trv to do better this 
month. 
Our teacher likes the birds very much 
and so do I. I will tell you about the 
birds I have seen. I saw a flock of Chick¬ 
adees; they were flying along the ground 
Chickadees eat insects. 
I have seen a robin and heard one. I 
saw two hawks and there were some crows 
after one of the hawks. The crows made a 
great noise. We have the song sparrow; 
it is one of our greatest singers. I hope 
my letter will be published this time. 
Yours truly. 
Aged 11. Minnie Munnis. 
Drummond, Wis., Feb. 27, 1906. 
Dear W ay side: 
One time last summer another boy and 
I went hunting. We were walking along 
and there was a little Chickadee sitting 
on a bough, swinging in the wind and 
singing “Chickadee-dee-dee-d ee-dee. ” 
The boy said,“Shoot it.’C And I said, 
“All right.” So I got all ready and then 
1 thought, “Now that poor bird wants to 
live as well as I do.” The bov laughed 
and made fun of me. But I said, “It is 
not only for the fun that I want to shoot 
the bird. That bird has as much right 
to live as you or I. Think if somebody 
should shoot you. You would not like 
it, and if you should shoot that bird 
maybe you would shoot a mother or 
father bird that has some young ones 
somewhere in a nest. The mother and 
father would feel sorry just the same as 
our fathers and mothers would feel if we 
were shot, and besides the bird was not 
made to shoot or kill. It was made for 
some use just the same as you or I. 
That bird is happy and sings all over the 
woods until somebody comes along and 
shoots it.” 
I don’t know whether the bird was 
shot or not, but I do know that I did 
not shoot it. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 14 years. Fred Wolf. 
Eagle River, Wis., Feb. 13, 1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
Yesterday we boys found a little mouse 
in the school yard and our teacher said 
we might tell the Wayside about it. It 
was eating on a piece of bread which one 
of the scholars had thrown out of doors. 
Its back and sides are dark brown, while 
the under part of its body is light gray. 
It has a long nose almost like the bill of 
a bird, with nostrils at the end. On the 
under side of its nose is its mouth. Its 
teeth are very sharp and there are two 
sorts of tusks growing up from the lower 
jaw. Its eyes are black and very small.’ 
Its ears are almost invisible. This little 
mouse is about an inch and a half long. 
The tail is about half an inch longer than 
the body. Its legs are very large for a 
mouse and have hair about half wav 
J 
down them. Its four paws have five toes 
each, and each toe contains a sharp claw. 
Yours truly, 
Henry Marco. 
[This may have been the Jumping 
Mouse which has very long hind legs. 
The length of the body is three inches, 
the tail being two inches longer. Is there 
not a mistake in the measurements given 
in the letter?] 
La Crosse, Wis., Mar. 8, 1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
One day during winter I was walking 
up the North-Western tracks and saw a 
bird. Thinking it a sparrow, I did not 
