BY THE WAYSIDE. 
25 
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. Wm. M. 
Scudder, 1G5 Buena Ave., Chicago, Ill., and Wisconsin 
children to Mrs. Peckham, 646 Marshall St., Milwaukee, 
Wis. An honor badge will be awarded for each state 
every month, preference being 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,719Frank¬ 
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. 
Iluthven Deane, 504 N. State St., Chicago. 
---- ’ _ 
The ITeadowlark. 
Description: Meadowlark ($turnella mag- 
na ). Adult both sexes; general appearance of 
| back and wing coverts mixed black and brown¬ 
ish, each feather being streaked or barred; top 
of head with median line of buff; outer tail- 
feathers largely white, inner ones barred; line 
from bill over eye yellow, bordered above and 
below by black; sides of throat whitish, mid¬ 
dle throat, breast and upper belly bright yel¬ 
low; large black crescent on breast; sides and 
lower belly white streaked with black; legs 
strong, toes long. General aspect of head very 
flat from crown to end of bill. Length of 
O 
males from end of bill to tip of tail 9.50 to 11 
inches; females 8 to 10 inches. 
Is'est: Is placed beside a tuft of grass or 
I at the foot of a weed stalk in a natural de¬ 
pression, or one made by the birds in a meadow 
or prairie; it is built of coarse grasses or 
weed stalks lined with finer material of the 
same kind and is usually well hidden by a 
dome or roof. 
Eggs: White, spotted and speckled with 
1 brown, purple and lavender. Usual number 
! five, varying from three to seven. 
The people whose homes are among the 
1 green fields need no one to tell them of the 
aesthetic value of the meadowlark. It is 
claimed that the song of the prairie bird far 
exceeds in volume and sweetness that of its 
eastern brother of the meadows, but the wild 
sweet song of either leaves an impress on the 
mind of the hearer that can never be effaced. 
However, the beauty of the meadowlark's plu¬ 
mage and the sweetness of its song are far less 
important to the human race than its value 
as in insect destroyer. 
It is probable that there are few birds as 
valuable to the farmer as the meadowlark, as 
it is entirely terrestrial in its habits, procuring 
almost its entire food supply from insect life 
harmful to meadows and prairie lands. 
An analysis of the food of the meadowlark 
leads one to w T onder how a farmer can act so 
much against his own interests as to allow 
one of these birds to be shot on premises which 
he controls. 
The following diagram and tables from data 
furnished by the Biological Survey, United 
States Department of Agriculture, give a 
graphic description of the aid these birds are 
to the agricultural folk: 
FOOD FOR THE YEAR. 
Stomachs 
Animal 
Weed 
Months 
Exam ’ d 
Food 
Grain 
Seeds 
Total 
Jan. 
. 13. 
....24.36. 
...75.28. 
... .36... 
...100 
Feb. 
. 1. 
.00. 
...25.00. 
..75.00.... 
...100 
March... 
. 12. 
....73.14. 
...17.00. 
.. 9.86.... 
...100 
April. 
. 28. 
....77.51. 
...15.10. 
... 7.39. 
.100 
May. 
. 8. 
....97,99. 
.. .13. 
...100 
June. 
. 20. 
....95.79. 
... 2.10. 
.. 2.11. 
...100 
July. 
. 18. 
....97.32. 
.00. 
... 2.68. 
...100 
August. 
. 28. 
....99.35. 
.00. 
... .65. 
...100 
Sept. 
. 29. 
....99.20. 
... .40. 
... .40. 
...100 
Oct. 
. 40. 
....94.39. 
... .61. 
.. 5.00. 
.100 
Nov. 
. 22. 
....77.08. 
... 6.50. 
..16.42. 
...100 
Dec. 
. 19. 
....39.22. 
...32.70. 
..28.08. 
...100 
Year. 
.238. 
...72.95% 
14.71% 
12.84% 
100% 
No. 1. Orthoptera. 
Red-legged grasshoppers 
Meadow “ 
Other “ 
Crickets 
No. 2. Coleoptera. 
Weevil 
Billbug 
Curculio 
Clover weevil 
Fire-fly family 
Lady birds 
Scarred snout beetle 
Leaf-eating “ 
Flea “ 
Darkling “ 
Rove “ 
Longcorn “ 
Tiger “ 
May “ 
Ground “ 
Click 
No. 3. Lepidoptera. 
Butterflies 
Moths 
Cutworm 
Armyworm 
No. 4. Hymenoptera. 
Ants 
Wasps 
Stinging ants 
Ichneumon flies 
No. 4. Hemiptera. 
Stilt bug 
Soldier *• 
Assassin “ 
Chinch “ 
Spittle insects 
Tree hoppers 
Jumping plant lice 
