BY THE WAYSIDE. 
27 
; 
is they can be, hunting food for the little ones, 
■sometimes they are destroyed by the sports- 
nen who collect their eggs and kill them, and 
hen take them to the large millinery firms to 
>e dressed for hats, which seems a very wicked 
,hing and all for pride, too. Some of us girls 
ind boys have a society for their protection. 
In winter when there is snow on the ground 
.hey cannot find anything to eat and will soon 
starve and die if they are not fed. I some- 
imes put out things for them to eat, and 
hey are very glad to get it. 
Eva May Carr, age 11. 
Dear Wayside. —The Phoebe is quite a small 
oird, and is often called the “Water Pewee.” 
Probably it was given that name because it 
oves to build under a bridge or in a rocky 
lank near the water. The Phoebe is a great 
oather. If you are anxious to find its nest, 
i.ook about the woodshed and if there is any 
ittle nook von will be likely to see a couple of 
iaervous little birds flitting about a nest. 
These nests vary quite a good deal. If they are 
near the rocks, the material chosen blends per¬ 
fectly. In barns, it is built of mud and moss, 
lined with soft grass. 
Once, when walking under a bridge, we 
came upon a nest built at the end of a plank. 
As we did not see any birds near, we noted the 
g°-(TS which were white with faint spots of 
brown. After we had consulted our bird 
books, we concluded it was a Phoebe's nest, 
and so it was. For when we went back again 
•we found the mother bird on her nest. 
One spring, quite early, I found a Phoebe 
dead under some telegraph wires, which it must 
have flown against in the storm the evening 
before. 
La Crosse. Helen J. Ferris, 12 years. 
Franksville, Wis. 
Dear Wayside. —There are four swallow 
' nests on our farm, there are two in an old 
■ shed. Now the sparrows have the old swal¬ 
lows’ nests for their house. 
There is one nest on the eaves of our barn; 
it was built last year and part of it fell down, 
and the swallows have built some more on it. 
Once there were some nests under the eaves 
of my friend’s barn. There used to be about 
I twenty nests there, but there aren’t so many 
there now. One summer one of the nests fell 
down and there were some little birds in it, 
and one of my friends took all of the little 
ones in the house and kept them and they 
o-rew to be very tame. They would follow the 
people all around the house. 
Swallows have large wings and their tails 
are forked. They can fly swift and they fly 
most all the day. They lay five or six eggs 
and raise two broods every year. 
Wesley Hunter. 
The Pewee. 
The Pewee is a bird that makes a nest out 
of mud, sod and roots, and sometimes they take 
chicken feathers to line their nests. 1 his year 
there were some Pewees that built their nest 
on the side of our barn. They laid three eggs 
in the nest, and they all hatched. They can fly 
now. 
Andre Melberne Fisher, age 8 years. 
La Crosse, Wis. 
Dear Wayside. —One hot day two years ago 
last summer, I walked across a field of timo¬ 
thy towards the woods. It was so hot every¬ 
where that the cool woods seemed especially 
inviting. All at once when I had got only a 
few rods into the woods, I was staitled by 
the noise of what sounded like the wings of a 
Lirge bird. Upon going a little farther, I saw 
a large brown bird which I knew was a part¬ 
ridge. I cautiously approached the spot from 
which the bird had flown, but I saw nothing. 
I pushed away the leaves, and there I saw four¬ 
teen little brown spotted eggs. How cunningly 
the old bird had scratched the leaves over the 
nest with her wings as she spread them and 
flew away! It was the last place I should 
ever think of looking for a bird’s nest. The 
ground was bare of everything but short grass 
and leaves were scattered about. Over the nest 
was a limb that had been blown down by a 
wind storm. This was all there was to hide 
it, for the limb had no leaves on it. 
Mabel Call. 
The Pewee. 
The Pewee is gray on its back and white on 
the breast. Its tail sticks up between her 
wings. It makes a crack with her wings when 
she wants us to go away from her nest. They 
make their nests out of mud, roots, horse hair 
and other things. The color of the young birds 
is yellow on top and underneath a slate color. 
The pin feathers on top of the birds grow 
very fast. 
Necedah. 
De Wayne Adet.bert Fisiier, 
