BY THE WAYSIDE 
55 
Waumandee, Wis., Dec. 6, 1905. 
Dear Wayside; 
About a week ago we caught a quail. 
It had a sore leg. We caught it in a 
brush pile. The quail is grayish-brown 
color. It has white stripes on each side 
of its head, its back is gray and brown; 
its breast is black, brown and white. I 
took the quail up to the house to show 
it to my sister; when I took it down to 
the barn again it sang a little. When I 
took it down I was going to let it fly but 
it didn’t want to go away. We took it in 
the barn and kept it there for a little 
while, then we gave it something to eat. 
It stayed in the barn about four days 
and then we let it fly away. 
Your friend, 
Laura Ochsner. 
Necedah, Wis., Oct. 2, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
I think I will try to write about the 
wren. She has a little body and a small 
tail about an inch long and a half.an inch 
wide. Its legs are about same length as 
its tail, its toes and claws are about a 
quarter as long as its legs. It is about as 
big as a chipping sparrow. Its song is 
like a ground bird, only diflerent. 
If you can find they are on the place, 
make a bird house four inches square 
with a hole just the size of a quarter of a 
dollar. There is no other bird that call 
chase them out. This spring a bluebird 
built in one of my bird houses, then the 
sparrow chased them, then the martin 
chased the sparrow, then at last the wren 
( r ot control of the house, lhen she left 
the nest and went to another house and 
laid an egg and left. It was about as big 
as a large navy bean and brown and white. 
Well, she left that nest and raised four 
young ones in another house. When the 
birds got quite large she took then in an 
old robin’s nest. We caught one and 
examined it; it was brown and gray. Its 
breast and under parts were lighter than 
the other places. They are a very nice 
bird to have around. The wrens have 
been here for two or three summers. 
DeWavne A. Fisher. 
Austin Ill.. 
Dear Wayside: 
As the other children are writing vou. 
I am going to write too. I am going to 
tell a story about a raven. 
Once, in a little village, they had a 
Post Office to which everybody had to 
go to get their mail. People kept miss¬ 
ing it for a long while until finally they 
came to conclusion that a robber must 
have been taking it. 
So the people appointed a man to hide 
in the bushes and look for robbers. 
Soon a black raven came living down, 
reached in with his bill, and took out a 
letter. On looking further they found 
a whole nestful of letters covered with 
leaves. As I fear I am making my 
letter too long I will close. 
Sincerely yours. 
Aged 11. Edna Winch. 
r Cross. Plains, Wis.. Nov. 29, 1905. 
Dear Wavside: 
* 
A wood-pecker came around our house 
and at first I didn’i know it. But 
afterwards I learned the bird. - We picked 
our nuts in autumn and we poured the 
shells, which had some kernels in on the 
the road. When the bird came hopping 
along she picked some up and came into 
the tree, in front of our house and ate 
them. I have learned much about the 
birds since I have been in the Audubon 
Society. Respectfully, 
Aged 12. Katie Marding. 
