BY THE WAYSIDE 
13 
SCHOOL BRANCH DEPARTMENT 
Every 'Wisconsin School Branch is required to subscribe for at least one copy of BY THE WAYSIDE 
Letters for this department should be written on 
only one side of the page, should give the name, age 
andaddress ofthe writer, and should be mailed by the 
first of the month; Illinois Children sending to Miss 
Ethel E. Hooper, 541 N. State St., Chicago, Ill., and 
Wisconsin Children to Miss Ruth Marshall, Appleton 
Wisconsin. An honor badge will be awarded for 
each state every month, preference being given to 
letters about the bird study for the month (which is 
always on this page), and to original observations. 
Any child who wins the honor badge twice will re¬ 
ceive By The Wayside one year as a prize. 
The wren button, which is the badge of the Audu" 
bon Society, costs two cents, and may be bought 
from Miss Hooper or Miss Marshall. 
Any Wisconsin School Branch may, without ex 
pense, have the use of the Gordon and Merrill Lib¬ 
raries of bird books, by applying to Miss Edna 
Edwards, Librarian, 846 Prospect St., Appleton. 
A set of colored bird slides with a typewriter lec¬ 
ture may be rented from Prof. W. S. Marshall, 114 
E. Gorham Street, Madison, Wis. 
Illinois Schools mav use. without expense, a libr¬ 
ary or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to 
Mrs. Ruthven Deane, 504 N. State St., Chicago. 
THE SUMMER BIRDS. 
The two secretaries are going to ask 
the Audubon boys and girls to watch' close¬ 
ly the birds of their acquaintance this sum¬ 
mer to find out all they can about their hab¬ 
its—how they rear their young, how many 
broods they have, what they eat, how they 
* 
sing, and many other things found out by 
keeping one’s eyes and ears open. Here is 
something to do during the long vacation. 
Write to the Wayside the best letter that you 
can, telling what you have found out. For the 
best letter sent by Sept. 1 to either secretary, a 
prize of a bird book will be given, and the let¬ 
ters will be published in the Wayside. 
WISCONSIN PRIZE LETTER. 
Park Falls, Wis., May 26, 1905. 
Dear Wayside: 
Our Audubon Society has just started this 
spring, and we don’t know much about the 
birds but we are going to learn about them. 
I am going to describe the oriole. The nest is 
long and swings from a limb of a tree. His 
color is orange and black. His breast is orange 
and his head is black. His tail is black and 
orange. He builds his nest high in trees. He 
likes to eat worms and insects. He does not 
like crows and hawks. We have twenty-five 
bird pictures in our school room. I like all the 
birds in the world. 
A little Audubon girl, 
Aged 8. Yirenne Leichtnam. 
ILLINOIS PRIZE LETTER. 
The Baltimore Oriole. 
Last week when I was going up town I saw 
an oriole. It was in one of the highest branch¬ 
es and I thought it was a boy whistling. 
But I went out into the street and saw it was 
an oriole. The oriole had a black head and a 
black tail and a bright orange breast. The 
oriole had some twine in his mouth and I 
thought he was going to build his nest there, 
but h'e flew away. I did want to follow it but 
as I was in a hurry I could not. 
The song of the oriole is very sweet, and 
some of its notes are like those of the rose¬ 
breasted grosbeak. 
The Baltimore oriole was so named because 
Lord Baltimore, who was living up in New 
Foundlancl. went on a visit to Virginia and 
saw so many birds that he could hardly tell 
one from another. Afterwards h’e chose the 
oriole’s color for his own. 
The males come before the females, and if 
two want a certain mate they will fight for 
her. The orioles like high elm trees the best 
for their nests so that it can swing and sway 
in the wind. If they are in th'e wilderness 
they will have the top of the nest very small; 
if they know that nobody will molest them 
they wil make it more open. In Whittier’s 
Child Life he gives some very nice verses: 
Upon a limb—th'e lazy fellow! — 
Perches the father, bold and gay, 
Proud of his coat of black and yellow, 
Always singing throughout the day. 
Close at their side, the watchful mother, 
Quietly sober in dress and song, 
Chooses her place and asks no other, 
Flying and gleaming all day long. 
Four little mouth's in time grew smaller, 
Four little throats in time are filled. 
Four little nestlings quite apall her, 
Spreading their wings for the sun to gild. 
May 23, 1905. Florence Deuben. 
Jim Crow. 
Two or three years ago, in the eastern part 
of Indiana, a friend and I were returning from 
an Indian mound where we had been hunting 
for arrows and pottery, when our attention 
was directed towards a large maple tree. There 
