\ 
BY THE WAYSIDE. 51 
ico. Birds of the Eastern states pass the win¬ 
ter in the South, West Indies, Central Amer¬ 
ica, and even in Brazil. 
Ernestine Seeman, age 14 years. 
Poy Sippi, Wis. 
Dear Wayside: —The wren is smaller than 
a robin and dislikes the stillness of the woods. 
It has been known to choose strange places for 
building its nests as in unused carriages and 
old shoes. The color of the wren is a sort of 
grayish brown and it is fond of fighting and 
ruling other birds. 
Yours respectfully, 
May E. Smith, age 12 years. 
Mazomanie, Wis. 
Dear Wayside: —As 1 was walking out in 
the woods one day, I saw perching at the very 
top of a tall tree a bird with black wings and 
tail, rest of body a very bright red. 
The bird I found afterwards to be a scar- 
let tanager. It is a shy bird and lives mostly 
in the woods. It does not sing much. It lays 
four or five greenish-blue eggs speckled with 
purple or brown. The scarlet tanager is a 
beautiful bird and hard to tame. 
Yours truly, 
Neal Daubner. 
Cedarburg. 
i 
Dear Mrs. Peckham. —One of our neighbors 
gave me a crow. When he first came into my 
possession he did not care for me at all. 
In about three weeks he began to take a 
queer notion about my puppy, Blackie. He 
would peck at him and pull his hair with 
such a force that tears rolled down my puppy’s 
cheeks. 
When I went out to dig for worms, my crow 
whom I now called Jim would follow me. He 
would pick up the worms and eat them almost 
as fast as I could dig. When he had his fill 
he would pick up the worms and put them 
into- a tin can, which I always carried with 
me. To this can Jim would go and help him¬ 
self whenever he became hungry. 
Jim was very fond of fish. When Jim saw 
me with my fishpole he would flutter his wings 
and hop on one leg. 
We would go fishing almost every day. 
Whenever I caught a small fish Jim was there 
sure to claim it. I generally cut the fish in 
If 
small pieces, but sometimes Jim would run 
away with it before I could do so. 
Jim grew very fond of my two dogs. When¬ 
ever another dog came into our yard Jim was 
sure to go for him and make it rather a wa.m 
affair for the unwelcome visitor, so he was glad 
to flee. Fred' Freund. 
La Crosse. 
Dear Mrs. Peckham. —I used to go about 
half blind, as you may call it. I never noticed 
the birds at all. The days did not seem so 
pleasant as now. But now I see every bird, 
nearly, and hear every new bird-call. 
There was a very interesting little incident 
that happened in our yard. Two little sparraws 
built their nest in our house. The water spout 
used to run down through the eaves. It began 
to leak, and the men could not get at it to mend 
it, so they pulled the pipe out and built it 
out around the eaves. They forgot to close 
up the hole the pipe was in. The little spar¬ 
rows are usually hated and driven away. But 
I have no hatred for them, so I let them 
stay there. I watched every day for a long 
time. 
The male bird did not sit around and let 
the mother bird do all the work, but pitched 
right in and helped too. First the mother 
would sit off at quite a distance from the hole 
on a wire, then the father bird would fly a 
little closer and a little closer. Then, after a 
while, he lit on the roof. He was talking away 
to his mate all the time. 
The next day I saw the little birds getting 
some straws to build the nest. They did not 
take just one straw and make a trip to the nest. 
Oh, no! they were too wise for that. They 
both piled up a neat little pile of straws on a 
chip that was hollow through the center. They 
laid the straws from side to side, so they 
could put their little bill under the straws and 
take more than one at a time. At length they 
sot their nest built, and had four little eggs 
to hatch. I do not know whether the male 
bird helps to hatch the eggs or not. I hope 
he does. Or, if he doesn’t, he ought to, or else 
bring food for his mate. The eggs were hatched 
and there were four little birds. I know this 
because I took the ladder and felt in the nest. 
I was very careful not to disturb the eggs be¬ 
fore they were hatched. The next time I felt 
in the nest, I felt some things that squirmed. 
They thought it was the mother and peeped 
louder than ever. Merle Savage. 
