BY THE WAYSIDE 
23 
stays with us a few weeks in April; then 
he goes farther north and comes back 
about November and stays a few weeks; 
then he goes south to stay the rest of the 
winter. 
There are not many birds here now ex¬ 
cept the bluejaysand the sparrows which 
of course stay here all winter. I do not 
know whether the snow birds are here 
yet or not, but I think they will soon be 
here. 
Very truly yours, 
Edward S. Gaylord. 
Robins. 
The robin is very pretty. It has a red 
breast and dark brown wings. They fly 
south when the snow comes but they 
come back very early in the spring. 
Last year a baby robin fell out of the 
nest and I caught it and took it home. 
That evening the mother and the father 
birds came to hunt for it and I took it 
out and gave it to them and they took it 
up to the nest, but they had a very hard 
time to get it up. But at last they suc¬ 
ceeded in getting it to its nest. There is 
a pair of robins building a nest in a tree 
in our vard. We nailed some cotton on 
•/ 
our stable wall and they have taken it 
all. The robins’ eggs are a light blue. 
They are very pretty. 
Age 10. Lavall Evans. 
Alton, Illinois. 
thought that they were some different 
kind of birds. They were with the chick¬ 
adees. I did not know then that they 
were chickadees. A few days after that 
my teacher was looking at a bird paper, 
and she found that chickadees whistled 
and sang. 
At noon March 21, when several of us 
were coming home from school together, 
one of the girls pointed out a robin. It 
was sitting on a post. When we were 
just opposite the post, Mr. Robin flew 
away. The same day when I was com¬ 
ing back to school with Ruth Larson we 
saw three bluebirds flying about. 
Age 10 years. Alta Halverson. 
Chicago, Ill., April 11, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
I am going to write about the downy 
woodpecker. The downy woodpecker 
builds his nest in a tree. His hole is 
straight and then curved. This is why 
he curves it, so the wind and rain and 
snow can’t get in. The downy wood¬ 
pecker is spotted. The spots are black, ' 
white, and a red spot on his head. 
He digs the hole himself and it is very 
comfortable. The downy woodpecker 
can stand on the trunk of the tree, and 
the robin and sparrow can not. He gets 
his food from the trees. 
Yours truly, 
Aged 9. Norman Elmer Andersen. 
Deer Park, Wis., March 30, 1904. La Crosse, Wis.; Feb. 3, 1904. 
Dear Wayside: Dear Wayside: 
It was just a little while ago that I This is the first time I have written to 
found that chickadees could whistle, you. I belong to the Audubon Society, 
One afternoon as I was coming home and am interested in birds. Some weeks 
from school with Ruth Larson we saw ago the trees in front of our school were 
some chickadees. They were black and full of cedar waxwings. 
gray. We heard them singing. We A few days ago I was playing in the 
also heard some birds whistling. We school yard when my little brother called 
