BY THE WAYSIDE 
71 
take particular notice of it. I walked on 
a little ways when I heard the clear note 
“Chickadee-dee-dee.” I went back and 
found the bird I thought to be a sparrow 
a Chickadee. 
The Chickadee is about five inches long. 
It is black on the top of the neck and 
throat. Its cheeks and upper part of 
breast are white. The lower breast is a 
grayish brown. About two months ago 
I was going past the library when I no¬ 
ticed a small brown bird on the trunk of a 
tree. I came quite close to it and found 
it was a brown creeper. That was the 
first and last one I saw during fall and 
winter. 
We have over thirty members in our 
Audubon Society. Each one pays one 
cent a week dues with which we buy 
bird books and magazines. We now 
take The Wayside and Birds and Nature. 
I think more of the members will write 
later on. 
Yours truly, 
Russell Pope. 
Durand. Wis,, Feb. 17, 1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
I am longing for spring to come and 
with it our birds. Most of them are gone 
except a few, as the woodpeckers, and 
our old friend, the chickadee. I think it 
would be very lonesome without them 
and they don’t seem to mind the cold 
weather at all. We haven’t a bird table 
at school, but we put bread around for 
them, and they are so tame they will 
come within a few feet of us to get it. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 8. Jannette Johnston. 
Necedah, Wis., Feb. 24, 1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
The Chickadee is a native of North 
/ 
America. It is ashy gray on the back 
and brownish white below. The top of 
the head and neck are pure black. The 
Chickadee is a lively little bird and is 
often seen running over trees and rocks 
in search of insects. It destroys great 
numbers of canker worms and other in¬ 
sects every year. In the winter it comes 
near houses, and if it finds a piece of 
meat it will keep coming and eating on 
it until it is gone. It builds its nest in 
hollows of trees and lays eight or ten 
eggs covered with brownish red spots. 
It gets its name from the song it sings 
which sounds like “Chickadee-dee-dee.” 
James Pratt. 
Drummond, Wis., Feb. 27, 1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
The merriest bird that flies is the 
Chickadee. He is nearly always happy, 
but sometimes he is very saucy, too, but 
we like him just the same. He can say 
his name very .plainly. He stays with 
us all the year, summer and winter. 
The Chickadee builds his nest in a hole 
in a tree or stump. 
The Chickadee does not run away from 
us like the other birds. You can hear 
ids lively twitter when the snow r is deep 
and the weather is cold. We can see 
him hopping about hunting for crumbs 
of food. We should be kind to th# 
Chickadee always because they help to 
cheer our long cold winters. 
Yours truly, 
Rose Moe. 
Florid, Ill. Feb. 27. 1906. 
Dear Wayside: 
I thought I would write to you and 
tell you about the chickadees, [ started to 
feed them in January and have fed them 
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