BY THE WAYSIDE. 
17 
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 and ad¬ 
dress of the writer, and should be mailed by the first of 
the month, Illinois Children sending to Mrs. Win. M. 
Scudder, 105 Buena Ave., Chicago, 111., and Wisconsin 
children to Mrs. Peckliam, G46 Marshall St., Milwaukee, 
• Wis. An honor badge will be awarded for each state 
every month, preference beiDg given to letters about the 
bird for the month (which is always on this page), and 
to original observations. Any child who wins the honor 
badge twice will receive a bird book as a prize. 
The wren button, which is the badge of the Audubon 
Society, costs one cent, and may be bought from Mrs. 
Scudder or Mrs. Peckham. 
Any Wisconsin School Branch may, without expense, 
have the use of the Gordon and Merrill Libraries of bird 
books, byapplyingto Miss Bossert, Librarian,719 Frank¬ 
lin St., Milwaukee. 
A set of colored bird slides with a type-written lecture 
may be rented from Prof. W. S. Marshall, 114 E. Gorham 
St., Madison, Wis. 
Illinois Schools may use, without expense, a library 
or a lecture with lantern slides, by applying to Mrs. 
j Kuthven Deane, 504 N. State St., Chicago. 
The Kingbird. 
i 
Upper parts blackish; under parts white, 
washed with gray on breast; head with a con¬ 
cealed red patch; tail tipped with a white 
band; length, about 8W inches. Eggs, five 
or six in number, white with markings of pur¬ 
ple, brown, and red-brown. 
The little gray bird so often seen leaving his 
perch on the roadside fence to dart after an 
insect, or to perform some graceful evolutions 
in the air, is another of the fiv catchers, and 
perhaps the most remarkable of his tribe for 
the intrepidity with which he will attack birds 
vastly larger than himself if they approach his 
nest during the breeding season. Mounting in 
the air high above he pounces down upon the 
back of the Hawk, Crow or Jay, pecking furi¬ 
ously, and renewing the attack again and 
again. 
The Kingbirds build in May, often in orcli- 
j ards, their nests being large, broad and rather 
shallow, of rude materials, but lined with fine 
rootlets and horse-hair. 
They have been so loudly accused of eating 
bees that the examiners in the Department of 
Agriculture have made a special study of their 
food. Of 218 stomachs only 14 contained any 
trace of honey-bees, and nearly all those were 
drones; so, to say the least, the habit is much 
less prevalent than supposed. In addition to 
this negative evidence, it has been found that 
DO per cent, of their food is insects, mostly in¬ 
jurious kinds. Among them are the gadfly, so 
terrifying to horses and cattle; the destructive 
clover-leaf weevil, rose chafer, ants, and 
grass-hoppers. Several asparagus beetles were 
found in one stomach. The conclusion reached 
by ornithologists is that the Kingbird is one 
of the best helps the farmer has in the destruc¬ 
tion of harmful insects, and as he rarely 
touches fruit or grain he enjoys great security 
compared with many equally useful birds. 
It has been supposed that the Kingbird had 
only a monotonous twitter, but Mrs. Miller 
has heard him sing to his wife on the nest. 
From Mrs. Bailey, It. Ridgway, and Wilson 
Flagg. 
Letters about the Kingbird should be mailed 
by August 1st. 
Prizes and Badges. 
The honor badges for June go to Ruth Hazel- 
tine, Mazomanie, Wis., and Muriel Lampert, 
Belvidere, Ill. Forty-nine excellent letters 
have been received from the First District 
School in La Crosse, the writers being: Grace 
Lyman, Walter Schroeder, Mabel Tanberg, 
Catharine Connelley, Stella Pruetz, Ruth Ditt- 
man, Simon Johnson, Anna Tennell, Howard 
Gates, Ruth Bradfield, Josephine O’Connor, 
Mabel Call, George Kirschrier, Leonard Streck, 
Ida Fialkoff, Edmund Cronon, Mayme Garrity, 
Willie Owen, Duncan Rowles, Eddie Weimar, 
Archie Keeling, Merle Savage, Bessie Close, 
Mary Huber, Sidney Doane, Lillie Homer, 
Marion MacMillan, Emily Holmes, Robert 
Sidensol, Joseph Kidder, Josephine Benjamin, 
Marie Lehman, Harold Davis, Mildred Leith- 
old, Or. Lewis, Helen Ash, Porter Greene, 
Sadie O’Rourke, Mary Dupre, Margaret Mon¬ 
roe, Dave Monty, Pearl Loveland, Bertha Zein, 
Emma Neubauer, Mabel Nice, Jessie Montz, 
Fred Burgh, Selma Lakowski and Myrtle Mc- 
Kinnev. 
We have heard also from William Schneider, 
Alta Kuetlier, Norma Battles, Rosa Hansen, 
Laura and Elsie Simon, Joe Keyes, Andrew 
Thronson, Iva McCullough, Elsie Conrad, Wes¬ 
ley Hunter, Anabelle Wrightman, Harry Butz, 
Bennie Blacock, Clyde Hicks, Maud Mikula 
and Francis Tobin, in Wisconsin; from Joe 
Rick, Juanita Reade, Kearsley Martin, Ross 
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