42 
BY THE WAYSIDE. 
English influence, good laws have been passed, 
and now from far Australia comes the good 
news that great efforts are being made to save 
the native birds and to prevent the trade in 
feathers. The colonies of egrets in \ ictoria 
are being rigorously protected, and the gov¬ 
ernment of Queensland will soon have certain 
islands reserved for the nutmeg pigeons. Ac¬ 
tion has also been taken to reserve chains of 
lakes in Victoria as breeding places for wild 
fowl. 
Both you and your teachers should be in¬ 
terested in the monthly prize, offered in this 
number, of a subscription to Bird-Lore. This 
magazine is beautifully illustrated and is full 
of interesting things. 
Elizabeth G. Peckham. 
Wisconsin Prize Letter—The Flicker. 
A great variety of names does this bird pos¬ 
sess. It is commonly known as the Golden- 
Winged Woodpecker, Y r ellow-Shafted Flicker, 
Yellow-Hammer, and less often as High-Hole 
or High-Holder. Around here we call it the 
Flicker or High-Holder. It lives around in 
the United States and in Canada. It usually 
comes in April, sometimes in March. 
It is interesting to watch a Flicker. The 
Flicker is very useful; it destroys multitudes 
of grubs, larvae and worms. He loves ber- 
ries and fruit, but the damage he does to cul¬ 
tivated fruit is very trifling. 
Flickers build their nests about two weeks 
after the bird arrives from the South; it pre¬ 
fers open country or any old stump or partly 
decayed limb of a tree along the banks of a 
creek. 
My uncle built a barn and didn’t build his 
house right away, but after a while the Flick¬ 
ers came there and pecked a great many holes 
in the barn and one day they went out and 
killed some of them. There was a Flicker 
that built a nest in a hole in one of our apple 
trees and laid nine eggs as white as snow. 
Wesley Hunter, age 14. 
Illinois Prize Letter. 
Dear Wayside: —The meadow-lark is about 
as large as a robin. It’s back is brown and 
its breast is yellow. It has a black crescent 
on it’s breast. Just below the wings is white 
spotted with black. The lower side of it’s 
head is also white, spotted with black. The 
top of it’s head is brown, while below it’s eyes 
and behind it’s bill is buff. Its outer tail 
feathers are mostly white, while the inner ones 
are barred. It builds it’s nest in tall grass in 
the meadows. It is sometimes covered and has 
it’s entrance at the side. It’s eggs are white, 
spotted with brown, purple and lavender. 
There are from three to seven, but generally 
five. 
The meadow-larks are very cunning, because 
when they want to go to their nest they do 
not fly right down to it, but they light a lit¬ 
tle distance from it and creep along in the 
grass till they come to it. 
Their song changes with the seasons. In 
winter a peculiar lisping, long and sad note is 
heard once in a while. In spring-time it s 
clear and flutelike whistle rings out from the 
trees and is very sweet. 
The meadow-larks are very valuable to 
farmers because their food consists mostly of 
insects which are harmful to the meadows and 
prairies. 
I once read a story about a meadow-lark 
whose nest was in a farmer’s meadow. When 
the men were cutting the grass they noticed 
a meadow-lark flying about, but when they 
went to look for the nest it was not to be 
found. One day the meadow-lark flew very 
near the mower and the men stopped the 
mower and hunted for the nest and this time 
they found it. The mower was stopped just in 
time to save the young birds’ lives. The far¬ 
mer cut the grass all over the meadow but 
the place where the meadow-lark’s nest was. 
No doubt the bird was thankful for the far¬ 
mer’s goodness. 
Much would be saved if the meadow-lark’s 
lives would be spared, as they kill many in¬ 
sects. 
Mildred A. Dixon, age 13. 
North Alton, Ill. 
La Crosse, Wis. 
Dear Madame. —This morning was^ our 
teacher’s visiting day, and Duncan Rowles and 
I went to the cemetery, looking for birds. We 
started at half-past eight. When we got to 
the park at the entrance to the cemetery we 
saw our first bird, the yellow throated vireo. 
Then we entered the cemetery and saw four 
brown thrashers. One of these kept us looking 
for nearly fifteen minutes, when we discovered 
it at the very top of the tree into which we 
had been looking. Another one was inside an 
evergreen treee. We then heard a song a little 
way off, and went to see what kind of a bird 
